New Beginnings
by TheMadHatterandMarchHare
Summary: AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?
1. New Beginings

**New Beginnings**

_AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?_

Oh boy! I'm so excited because this is my first Kingdom Hearts story ever! It will be a Riku/Namine pairing mainly but it will also have Sora/Kairi and perhaps Axel/Larxene and Roxas/Olette. I was thinking about doing Axel/Roxas but I decied that they should just remain best friends in this story. Maybe in the future I will write another story based on Axel/Roxas. Anywhoo, enough with my blabbering and here is the first chapter!

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 1: New Beginnings (Prologue)**

"So she's moving in here with us correct?"

Roxas looked at his best friend and roommate and replied "Yes, she is. She's my little sister and I promised her that I would always protect her. Now that our mom is going to jail she's staying with us." His companion smirked and said "You're getting soft." Roxas just laughed as he threw a pillow at Axel.

Roxas Heart was a 20 year old college student along with his friend Axel who was 21. They both grew up on Destiny Islands. Roxas and Axel had been best friends ever since their first day in Kindergarten when Axel stole Roxas's sandwich. Roxas punched him in the face for it and they both received a time out. During that time out though, they started talking to each other and ever since then, the two were inseparable.

Everyday after school Axel would go to Roxas's house and they would play video games along with Roxas's twin brother Sora Heart who was also part of their group. The three of them were known as the 'three musketeers'. They were the troublemakers of Destiny Islands. However, after graduating High School the trio decided that it was time to see what was out there in the world and decided to move to Twilight Town to attend Twilight University. Roxas and Axel both decided to get a three bedroom apartment that was not too far from the school and close to the shop that they both worked at. Axel and Roxas were both mechanics and loved the smell of oil and machinery.

Roxas was very muscular for his age along with his twin brother. While Sora had brown hair, Roxas had blonde hair but both of them had the same shade of blue eyes. Roxas was taller than Sora by about an inch (Sora believed that he was taller because his hair defied gravity more than his twin's hair but Roxas did not believe that). Both were very tall but Axel was at least a few inches taller than them. Axel was the definition of unique. Having bright red apple hair that also defied gravity, he had two tear shaped tattoos on his face and had that aura of danger around him. Axel was a bit of a pyromaniac as well, almost burning down the apartment one time when he was trying to cook food. Roxas hasn't let him cook ever since.

Sora, instead of rooming with his twin and best friend decided to move into an apartment with his high school sweetheart Kairi Serenity who was also attending Twilight University. Sora and Kairi had known each other for a long time and everyone knew they were both destined to be together. To afford the apartment, Sora worked as a key smith (a person who cuts keys) while Kairi worked part time at a trendy boutique that paid a decent salary. Both were very happy together and you could see the love radiating from them. Roxas at first did not like Kairi because he felt that she was stealing her brother away from him but after a while he saw her as sister.

Speaking of sisters, Roxas and Sora had a younger sister, named Namine Heart.

Namine was only 16 year olds and very petite for her age. Unlike her brothers who are loud and obnoxious, Namine is quiet and reserved which lead to a lot of teasing and almost everyday Namine would come back home in tears. Sora and Roxas both care very deeply about their sister and always protected her. They had gotten into numerous fights in school in honor to protect their sister from the bullies that tormented her.

Namine always told her brothers to stop fighting because she believed that fighting didn't solve anything. It didn't help either when they would always fight with their mother.

You see life in the Heart's household it wasn't always fun and games.

Their father had left their family right after Namine was born. Their mother wasn't quite happy about that and resolved to do drugs instead of raising her children. She cared more about her drugs than her children causing her to have numerous fights with her sons. Roxas being the oldest by 5 minutes, (a fact which he always pointed out to his brother) took it upon himself to raise Sora and Namine since his mother did not want to have a part in their lives. He helped them out with her homework and problems that they were having. Sora was a bit slow and was always seen in detention whereas Roxas was taking Honors classes and had never gotten in trouble once. Roxas always seemed to bail out Sora when he was in trouble. They were a happy little family, along with Axel and Kairi. Roxas was thankful that Kairi acted like a mother and sister figure towards Namine so she wasn't always surrounded by boys and could talk to Kairi about 'girl problems'.

When they moved out, Roxas was extremely worried about Namine living with his mother who didn't care about her at all. Namine calmed him and told him that it was alright and that she could handle her mother. One thing that annoyed Roxas more than anything was that Namine cared more about other's happiness than her own and he really wanted to see her happy. He was 18 when he moved out while Namine was 14 but Roxas would visit her at least every weekend and Sora would visit her every other weekend. Roxas felt that it was his responsibility to make sure that Namine was safe no matter what.

About two weeks ago he received some terrible yet happy news in his opinion.

He found out that his mother had been charged with not only selling drugs, but theft as well. She was found guilty on both charges and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, leaving Namine without a guardian. Roxas took it upon himself to tell the court that he would take care of Namine, instead of his Uncle Ansem who to Roxas, seemed like a shady man. After they did a background check on both and checked their financial report, they decided that Roxas was the best candidate to be Namine's guardian.

He had signed up Namine to the local High School which was Hollow Bastion High School and had to clean up the vacant room that Namine would occupy. Her school would start in three days so during those three days he was thinking of just showing Namine the ropes of this town. Namine would be moving in the next day and Roxas couldn't wait.

Axel was watching his best friend pace back and forth wondering if the house was decent enough for Namine. Axel was happy that Namine was moving in, he liked her in a brother-sister way. He would also defend Namine when she was getting picked on. The girl was extremely fragile looking and he hated seeing her sad, it stung his heart. It shocked him when Roxas told him about his mother going to jail but he was all down for letting her stay with them. Maybe some fresh Twilight Town air would help her break out of her shell. Who knows?

"When does her flight arrive?"

"It should arrive tomorrow at 9:05 in the morning, I think. Sora and I are going to pick her up, and I'm pretty sure that you are going as well?" said Roxas as he stared at his friend.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world! Besides, we should show her around Twilight Town when she gets here! And I am the greatest tour guide since I know what Twilight Town offers. Got it memorized?"

Roxas snorted at his friend's catch phrase. Axel would always say that no matter what and he thought it was the funniest thing ever. Roxas looked at the clock and it was 12:31am.

"Well, I think I'm going to hit the hay so I can get up early tomorrow. I suggest you do the same thing Axel since you and I both know that you like your sleep and if we keep talking your hours of sleep will be very limited."

"Well, I need my beauty sleep you know. Being this handsome is a tough!" said Axel as he smirked at his younger friend.

Roxas laughed "Whatever Axel" he said as he walked towards his room to retire for the night.

* * *

"RIKU!"

A very tall boy with long silver hair turned around as he saw his best friend running towards him. "You walk way too fast!" his companion said while Riku smirked at him. "You run too slow." He retorted making his friend roll his eyes. They both walked at an even pace

"So, what havoc will we cause this year in school, Seifer?" asked Riku to his friend who was nearly as tall him and wore a black beanie. Riku smirked "Well, how do you know if this year will be different than last year? I mean last year was really fun, hell we spent most of our days in detention, which I have to admit was pretty awesome!" Riku laughed at his friend's outburst. He then turned around and stared at Seifer.

"I don't know, Seifer for some reason I feel like this year will be much more interesting than last year. It's a feeling that I have. I know for a fact that this year will be much more exciting than last year."

Seifer gave his best friend a funny look and shrugged "Maybe we will both get straight A's this year!" They stared at each other for five seconds and burst out laughing. "Good one!" said Riku as he high fived his friend.

Riku Nomura was a 17 year old teen who is known as the 'bad boy' of Hollow Bastion High School. With his stunning long silver hair and masculine form he was a force to be reckoned with. His towering form made others cower in fear.

He along with his best friend Seifer Almasy who is 17 as well are known to cause trouble and get into fights with a lot of people. They have a few close friends as well and they were Rai Adams a tall muscular teenager who always ended his sentences with 'y'know'; Fuu Natsume a girl with short silver hair and red eyes who would beat you up if you look at her the wrong way. Last but not least, the shortest of the bunch was Vivi Ornitier, a shy and quiet teen who was well respected by teachers but a little devil when he was around his friends to cause havoc. They hung out with them during the lunch break but most of the time it was just Seifer and Riku hanging out together.

"I can't believe that school is going to start in three days. We are going to be juniors! I just hope all the kiddies at school know that they should stop picking fights with us or I will beat every single one of them up on the first day" said Seifer as he walked alongside Riku. "Especially Cloud and Squall, I hate them!"

Cloud Strife and Squall Leonheart were both seniors and rivals of Riku and Seifer. They both hated each other and nobody really knew the reason why they started hating each other so badly. Whenever they saw each other at the hallways they would either yell at each other or bump into them really hard and if a teacher saw them they would claim it was an 'accident'.

"Don't' even think about _them _right now, let's just enjoy what we have left of our vacation. I bet you this year is going to be great, I just know it." said Riku and Seifer replied "I'm putting my faith in you and hoping that you are right."

Seifer changed the subject and then asked "Want to get some sea salt ice cream?"

"Sure sounds good, I'll race you!" said Riku and with that he took off running towards the ice cream shop while an annoyed Seifer chased after him.

_Maybe this year would be different._

_

* * *

  
_

"Where is she?!" said an annoyed blonde as a brunette and red head laughed at the blonde's annoyance. Sora, Axel, and Roxas were at the airport waiting for Namine to come out of the gates. It felt like ages for both of the brothers but more so to Roxas.

"Hold your horses Roxas. She'll come out soon. Maybe she met some handsome stranger and left with him." joked Axel as he saw that his joke had made the twins glare fiercely at him. "Can't you all take a joke?"

"HEY I SEE HER!" said Sora as he waved frantically at the tiny blonde that was coming out of the gates. "NAMINE!" the twins' yelled making Namine jump with excitement as she ran towards them and gave them a hug.

"Roxas! Sora! It's great to see you guys!" said Namine as her brothers let her go and she noticed the redhead. "Axel! They didn't tell me you were coming!"

"I like to surprise people" said Axel as he hugged the little blonde. "How was your flight?" Namine made a face "It was really boring, but I drew this for you guys!" said Namine as she took out a folded piece of paper.

Namine was given the gift of art. She drew very well making everything look very realistic but she was very shy when it came to people criticizing her artwork. She wasn't sure if she could handle it.

The drawing was a picture of Axel, Sora, Roxas and herself smiling at each other. Namine was extremely close to her brothers and Axel, she knew she could be herself in front of them without feeling insecure or shy.

"Aw! Thanks Nami!" said Sora as Namine giggled at the nickname that Axel and her brothers had given her. Axel smiled at her as well showing his gratitude through his smile. Her brothers beamed at the picture and were currently fighting over who was going to keep the picture. After a serious game of rock, paper, scissors, Sora came out as the victor and was going to keep the picture.

"Come on Nami, let's go get your luggage and then paint the town red!" said Axel as he dragged the blonde towards the luggage area. "I hope he doesn't mean that literally" said Roxas as Sora shrugged. One time Axel had used that same exact phrase and they had actually painted part of the town with red paint. Thankfully, no one was caught.

After they got Namine's luggage, they hopped into Sora's SUV and drove off to find a place to eat since Axel was complaining that he hadn't been fed in a few hours. During the drive Sora would belt out the tunes that were playing while Axel and Roxas would argue over who was a better fighter. Namine giggled at their silly fight and looked out the window.

_It feels good to be home. _

_

* * *

  
_

That's the end of the first chapter! It will get longer; this is just the beginning! Hopefully I'll be able to update the next chapter in a few days. Please review and tell me what you think and what I should fix!

Thank You! :D


	2. First Encounters

**New Beginnings**

AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?

I decided to update today! I'm in a writing mood so I'm happy that I wrote the next chapter! This chapter is 11 pages! I'm very excited! Guess what?! I added the organization! Woo-hoo! Plus, I added a bit of drama because I feel like this story needs some action. Hopefully you guys still like it! I feel very happy about this and I hope that you guys like my story! So here is chapter 2 of New Beginnings!

* * *

**Chapter 2: First Encounters**

"Okay, so I want a Double Whopper, Roxas wants a Whopper and for the two kids give them a Kids Meal. Got it memorized?" said Axel to the cash register but not before he was hit on the head by the Sora. "Namine and I aren't kids!" said Sora while Axel just smirked. "Besides, I want a Whopper too!"

Roxas turned and looked at his sister. "What do you want Namine?" Roxas asked. "I'll just have the chicken nuggets." Namine replied.

Axel, being the generous saint he was, decided that he was going to pay for the food. The catch? They had to go the cheapest place to eat and that was Burger King. After an hour of driving they finally reached their destination.

After they had ordered they found a booth and waited for their number to be called. Sora was sitting next to Axel and Namine was sitting next to Roxas. A few minutes later their number was called and Sora went to get food. Once the food was brought to the table everybody dove right in.

The boys had horrible table manners and those manners were given to Namine as well. Even though Namine was very tiny, she ate a lot of food and didn't care how she looked like while eating it when she was around Sora, Axel and Roxas. A few people in the burger joint where giving them weird looks. After a few more minutes of devouring their food everyone was satisfied and almost done.

"Man, I haven't eaten food that good since the last time we were here." Axel said as he took a sip of his coke. "Oh so are you saying that the food I cook is bad?" Roxas said making Axel choke on his coke. "I didn't mean it like _that_; I'm just saying that I haven't had greasy fatty food in a long time!" Sora and Namine laughed at their bickering.

While the foursome was talking, two teens walked into the burger joint.

* * *

"Don't you just love the smell of burgers in the afternoon?" Seifer said as he smelled the aroma that emitted from Burger King. Riku just shrugged. "What are you going to get?"

Seifer looked at the menu and said "I'll probably get a whopper or something. I bet you will be getting that double whopper huh?" Riku smirked at his best friend "You know me too well. Go ahead and order the food, I have to go use the restroom. Here's the money." "Whatever" said Seifer as Riku walked towards the restroom.

"I'll be right back you guys, I'm going to use the restroom." said Namine as Roxas stood up to let Namine get up from the booth. Then Roxas sat back down and Namine went to the bathroom.

After Namine had finished washing her hands and drying them she opened the bathroom door only to hear a thud and someone falling over. Namine quickly went out and saw a very tall figure sprawled on the floor that was clutching his nose.

"Are you okay? I'm so sorry!" said Namine to the stranger as she kneeled by him to make sure he wasn't injured or anything. The stranger took his hand off his nose and that's when Namine saw a pair of gorgeous aqua blue eyes.

_Oh my._

Riku was walking towards the restroom when out of nowhere a door hit him in the face and he fell down. _How in the world did I miss that?_ thought Riku as he clutched his nose. He heard a soft gasp and a figure kneel beside him. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry!" said the figure's voice and Riku immediately knew that it was a girl who said that. Riku took his hand off his nose and looked at the girl. He saw her blonde hair and soft blue eyes. All he could think of was…

_Beautiful._

Time seemed to freeze for both teens as they stared at each other. Namine then coughed and offered Riku her hand which he gladly accepted and she helped him up. That's when he noticed how tiny the girl was. She only reached halfway to his chest! "Are you okay?" asked the girl who was staring at the floor. Riku nodded but noticing that she was staring at the floor thought of a brilliant idea and then smirked. "Yeah I'm fine, it's not everyday you get hit by a door by an angel." Riku said as he saw the blonde girl look up at him and blushed profusely. "Um, well I-" Namine was saying but she didn't know what to say.

"Don't worry about it. I'm fine. Are you new around here? I've never seen your face before." Namine was still blushing and nodded. "What's your name?" asked Riku to the blushing blonde.

"Na-Namine."

Riku smirked "Nice name. I'm Riku" he said and he extended his hand as Namine did the same thing and they shook hands.

* * *

Seifer had left the food on a random table and went to go check up on his friend who was taking his sweet time in the restroom. _He had better not have ditched_ _me_ thought Seifer as he finally saw Riku.

"You know it shouldn't take **that** long to use the restroom Riku, unless you fell in- well hello there gorgeous!" said Seifer as he noticed that his best friend wasn't alone and was shaking hands with a pretty blonde.

Namine immediately let go of Riku's hand and stared at the floor. Riku glared at his best friend. Seifer looked at Riku questioningly and then Riku said "Seifer this is Namine, Namine this idiot right here is Seifer. She just moved here." Riku said as Seifer glared at him. "Look whose talking, jerk!" Seifer replied while Riku laughed. Namine let out a small giggle when she heard their exchange and then flushed when she felt both of their stares on her.

"Pleasure to meet you Namine!" said Seifer as he grabbed Namine's hand and shook it. "You look around our age, how old are you?" Namine looked at Seifer and said "I'm sixteen."

"That means you must be a junior like us! Are you going to Hollow Bastion this year?" Namine nodded. Riku was about to reply when-

"NAMINE!"

The trio jumped as they saw a guy who looked older than them walk towards them. "Namine there you are! We've been waiting for you to come out. We want to show you around town." Roxas said as he found his sister talking with two boys.

Wait a minute. Boys? This did not look good and Roxas glared viciously at the teen boys who were just talking to his baby sister.

"Are they bugging you?" Roxas asked as he was making sure that Namine wasn't hurt at all. "No their not Roxas! I accidentally hit Riku" she pointed to the silver haired boy "with the bathroom door and I made sure that he was okay. Then he introduced himself and his friend Seifer. They are going to the same high school as me." explained Namine to her brother.

Seifer then started laughing out loud and turned to Riku. "She hit you with the bathroom door? That's awesome!! I wish I could have seen that. This knucklehead deserved it! Namine high five!" said Seifer as he lifted his arm up and waited for Namine to high five him.

Namine gave him a high five and Seifer continued laughing at Riku. Riku was getting annoyed at his friend's antics so he did the one thing that best friends usually do when they are getting annoyed by them: he put his best friend in a headlock.

"Guess who's laughing now Seifer?" retorted Riku as Seifer was trying to get out of the headlock. It wasn't one of those harmful ones, it was a playful headlock. Namine giggled at them while Roxas just kept his glare.

"Let go of me you jerk!" Seifer yelled as he was struggling to get out of Riku's grip. "Not unless you say that Riku is the greatest fighter and that I'm better than you." Seifer glared at Riku. "I am NOT saying that!" Riku smirked at his best friend "Oh really?" he then applied a bit more pressure on he headlock and Seifer could not get out of the headlock.

Namine's giggle had turned into laughter. Riku and Seifer had reminded her of her brother's and Axel's friendship. They were very close to one another and were always joking around. She liked them already but she felt more drawn to Riku than to Seifer. Namine blushed when she thought of that, however that blush wasn't missed by her older brother whose glare had turned even more deadly.

"Alright, alright! I give! Riku is the greatest fighter and you are better than me!" yelled Seifer and Riku had let him go and Seifer fell to the floor. He then got up quickly and glared at Riku "I may have admitted that you are a better fighter, but I'm better looking. Isn't that right Namine?" Both teens stared at the smaller blonde and Namine blushed even more.

"In your dreams Seifer, it's clear that I'm way better looking than you. I bet Namine thinks I'm hotter than you! Right?" His aquamarine eyes stared at Namine's sky blue eyes and both teens were in a trance. Seifer snickered as both teens looked at each other.

It was obvious to him that they both felt a spark towards one another_. _He was pretty sure he could see them dating in the future but they had to get to know one another as well. Namine seemed like a really sweet girl and fun, he wouldn't mind being her friend. He then looked at her older brother, who was trying to kill him and Riku with his stare. He smirked to himself.

_Scratch maybe, this year WILL be different after all._

A cough was heard and both teens were broken from their trance and looked at the older blonde. "Namine, I think it's time that we leave." Roxas said in a cold voice as he continued his glare at the boys. Namine knew what that voice meant: follow what it says. "Ok, well I have to go. It was nice meeting you guys!" Namine said as she started walking towards her table to meet up with Axel and Sora. "Bye Namine! See you at school!" Seifer said while Riku replied with "See ya, Namine."

Roxas's face softened when he saw his sister go to Sora but then he glared fiercely when his face met the two boys. "Listen, I don't know what you are playing at but right now, I do not like you. Namine seems to like you guys but I'll be watching both of you real good. If you hurt her, I won't hesitate to break your bones. Understood?" Both teens nodded. "Good. I'll see you later then." With that said Roxas left the two teens and went back to his friend and siblings who were now waiting outside for him.

Once Roxas left, the two teens let out a sigh of relief. "Okay dude, Namine seems cool but her brother is a bigger jerk than Cloud and Squall combined." Seifer said but Riku wasn't paying attention to him. He was currently thinking about the petite blonde. Seifer noticed that Riku wasn't paying attention to him so he elbowed him in the stomach. That definitely did the trick. "What was that for?!" Riku said as he held his hurt stomach. Seifer just rolled his eyes and said "Nothing, now stop thinking of Namine and let's eat! I'm starving!" Riku's eyes widened. "I was NOT thinking about Namine!" Seifer laughed and said "Sure…."

Riku just glared at his best friend as both of them went to sit at their table and eat the delicious meal that the burger joint had given them. Riku was about to take a bite of his burger when he said "I can't believe I'm going to say this but, I can't wait until school starts." Seifer and Riku exchanged a knowing look and then continued eating their food.

* * *

"Roxas is a heartless!" said Namine as Roxas had his arms crossed and said "I am not heartless!" Once in the car, Namine had told Axel and Sora what had happened and then Roxas told them what he said to the boys. Namine did not take too kindly to that; although she appreciated her brother's concern, he shouldn't' have said that to people who could be her friends in a new school. She had really liked them and now they are probably afraid of her because of Roxas.

"I was just looking out for you Nami! Besides, I was once their age and I know what teenage boys think of when they see a young, innocent, and naïve girl!" Axel agreed with Roxas in this battle because the way Roxas described them, the teens seemed like troublemakers and not good influences on their Namine.

"I bet they will probably tell the whole school how my brother is a cruel guy and then I won't have any friends!" The boys looked at each other and then Sora, deciding to take the role of the peacekeeper said "Nami, you are a great girl; you will make loads of friends. If those guys liked you for who you are, then you guys will remain friends. Don't worry about it. Just be you and you will be fine." Namine smiled at her brother and said "Thanks Sor. You know how to cheer me up." Sora smiled at his sister through the front mirror. Axel, who was now bored of the conversation said "Now that we are all happy again, let's do something fun!" The siblings sweat dropped at this.

"Do you have anything in mind, Axel?" asked Roxas who was praying that this fun did not have to do with breaking the law or becoming wanted criminals. He did not want to see his face plastered on the hit show 'Twilight's Most Wanted.'

"Well..." started the redhead pyromaniac "I think we should go visit our buddies at the repair shop and introduce them to 'our little princess.'" Sora and Roxas thought about it and they decided that it wouldn't be so bad for Namine to meet their friends.

At least they hope it wouldn't be so bad.

"We're here!" yelled Axel as Sora parked into a parking space. Organization XIII was known as the best car repair shop in all of Twilight Town. They were very famous and they treated everybody with respect. Thirteen of the best mechanics worked in the shop that was opened and founded by Xemnas. He treated his workers with respect and got along with all of them. However, the others didn't get along with each other sometimes. Roxas and Axel only considered five of the members their friends. Those lucky people were: Zexion, who was a quiet bookworm, Demyx, the rocker guy, Larxene, a girl with a sharp tongue and currently Axel's love interest, Xigbar, who was the co-owner of Organization XIII but was a really funny guy who wore an eye patch and Luxord, the guy who always loved to gamble and was good at it. Once Axel lost a month's worth of payment playing black jack with him, but Luxord feeling bad for Axel gave him the money back. They all got along really well, including with Sora who didn't work at the shop but they were all really close friends.

The other half of the members hated them and tried to make them all miserable. Marluxia especially, who got into numerous fights with Axel and Roxas and always tried to get them fired. In the beginning Axel and Roxas had tried to be friends with Marluxia but as he said he didn't want to be involved with "immature brats". They also did not get along with Marluxia's close friends in the shop and they were: Xaldin, a sadistic man who like Marluxia enjoyed bringing Roxas and Axel down, Vexen, a scientist who enjoys making experiments, Lexaeus, a really built man who enjoyed fights, and Saix, a cold and emotionless man who seems to be the closest to Marluxia.

Both groups were split evenly and tried to avoid each other as much as possible but it was very hard not too since they all worked in the same place. If something did get out of hand, they would usually wait until the store was closed and fight.

Namine was extremely excited to meet their friends. Roxas would tell her countless stories that involved his friends in the shop while Sora would tell her stories that happened outside of the shop. They seemed like a bunch of fun people.

"I hope Marluxia isn't here today. I don't want to see his ugly face on this perfect day that we are having." Axel said while Roxas and Sora chuckled and Namine smiled. She wasn't sure who this Marluxia guy was but she had heard bad things about him from her brothers. Something about his name made him seem bad as well so she silently hoped that Marluxia wasn't at the shop either.

* * *

"Welcome to the shop!" Roxas said as he opened the door for Namine.

Since it was a Monday, their slowest day of the week only a few people came to work on Mondays since it wasn't a requirement on that day. Namine looked around at the shop as the smell of oil and machinery met her. There were cars in the shop some that looked out of shape and others with bright new coats of paint. Tools lay scattered on the ground along with oil smudges and paint stains. The cash register was in the front on a desk that displayed various car magazines and on the walls there were pictures of cars that the company had fixed up and were now known around the world.

Roxas and Axel felt right at home here as they smiled at the sight of the shop. "Come on! Let's go to the break room. I'm pretty sure that's where our buddies would be." Axel said as he dragged Namine to the break room. Roxas and Sora followed them and Axel opened the door to see who was inside.

Inside they saw four figures in different areas of the break room. On one side they saw a figure shuffling a deck of cards and the other figure was sitting next to him but tuning his sitar. The other two figures they weren't particularly fond of. One had pink hair (Namine was puzzled by this) and was talking to a blue haired figure who had a scar on his face. When they heard the door open, both of those figures turned and saw the foursome. They then noticed the small blonde and smirked at her, especially the pink haired one. It felt like he was undressing her with his eyes. They both looked really nasty to Namine so she hid behind Axel (who was the tallest so she figured he would hide her easily) and the three men glared at the other two men.

"Well, well well. It seems they forgot to pick up the trash." Axel stated as Roxas and Sora laughed at them. Both figures then got up and walked over to them while the other two that were still sitting looked on. The blonde with the sitar did not believe in fighting while the other blonde was too lazy to get up. Both blondes decided to watch the scene unfold in front of them and if it got too chaotic they would help their friends out in a heartbeat.

"You better keep your mouth closed Axel. You never know when someone might want to shut it for you." The pink haired figure said. Then he looked at the blonde who was hiding behind Axel. "You must be the twin's sister eh? They could not stop talking about you throughout the whole week; you guys look a lot like each other. The pictures that Roxas has of you do you no justice. My name is Marluxia." He checked out the young girl and Namine was frozen in place, she did not feel very comfortable around him at all and tried to hide even more behind Axel. What he said next made Namine's blood run cold. "You are very beautiful, dear Namine." That's when the temper of the boys around her snapped.

"Don't you dare try to do ANYTHING to our sister!" Roxas roared as Sora was trying to hold him back btu was glaring at him as well. The twins and Axel had heard countless of stories on how Marluxia used girls to get what he wants. He didn't care about their feelings or anything; he manipulated them into believing what they wanted to hear and once he had gained their trust he shattered with his violent ways of getting what he desires. Marluxia had tried to seduce Larxene but Larxene was smart enough to fall for his tricks and instead fell in love with Axel; which infuriated Marluxia. They believe this was one of the reasons why Marluxia hated them so much.

Luxord had also told the trio that a woman claimed to have been raped by Marluxia but no one could prove anything and Marluxia was a very good liar. He had lied countless of times to get out of sticky situations. Everyone was positive that Marluxia had indeed raped that woman and many others as well. They had tried to tell Xemnas to fire Marluxia because of his reputation but Xemnas never listened and let Marluxia work at the shop. Once Marluxia set his mind on someone or something, he usually got it and it seemed as if his mind was set on getting Namine.

Marluxia scoffed and turned to the blue haired figure. "Saix, you hear that? They think that I would do something to harm her? I'm not that bad of a man, I would _never_ take advantage of anyone." Saix laughed at his friend's comment. If you really didn't know Marluxia well enough, you would probably think he was telling the truth but they knew better.

"You better stay away from her, Marluxia. You don't want me to beat you up like I did last week do you?" Axel stated as he smirked at Marluxia whose smile vanished from his face. Saix was about to go up to Axel but Marluxia stopped him and his eerie smile came back. "Patience my friend. Soon they will meet what is coming to them. Besides, I don't feel like dirtying my hands today, maybe some other time. I suggest you better watch yourselves. You never know if something bad might happen. Be careful!" He then looked at Namine. "Nice to meet you, sweet Namine. Until we meet again." He winked at the petite blonde and then both of them left the break room laughing as they walked away from the scene.

"I swear, if he as so much looks at Namine that way again, I will personally be the one to kill him." Sora stated as he went to hug Namine who was shaken from the encounter. Something about Marluxia made her feel uncomfortable, scared and helpless and she was starting to feel better now that Marluxia had left with Saix. Axel looked at Namine and gave her a hug as well once Sora let her go. "Don't worry Nami, we will make sure he stays far away from you. He won't hurt you." Roxas ruffled her hair and patted her on the shoulder. "I promise he won't hurt you Nami." Roxas never broke a promise and this was a promise he intended to keep.

Two figures then ran up to the group and the one with the sitar said "Dude! Thank God you got Marluxia out of here! He was really starting to bug me! You saved us from his torment! You are my hero dude!" He then proceeded to hug the daylights out of Axel. "Get off of me Demyx!" Axel said and pushed the sitar player off of him.

The others laughed and Namine felt much more comfortable with these guys than the others. Roxas then grabbed his sister and said "Demyx, Luxord, this is Namine my younger sister, Namine this is Demyx and Luxord two of the weirdest people you will ever meet."

"Nice to meet you!" Namine said as she extended her hand towards them. Demyx grabbed it first and shook it vigorously. "Nice to meet you as well! What kind of music do you listen too? Do you play any instruments? We should make a band! Do you like to eat fruit?!?!" The guy had a lot of energy in him, Namine could tell and he wouldn't let go of her hand. Before she could reply he was thrown to the side by Luxord and Luxord grabbed her hand. "Pleased to meet you, Namine. I'm sorry about my friend's questions. He just had about 4 energy drinks so he's not himself at the moment." The others stepped away from Demyx. When Demyx was hyped up on energy drinks, you had to hide and hope that his wrath wouldn't fall upon you.

Luxord let go of her hand and tried to get Demyx to sit still. Once he had him a bit still all of them sat in the break room's couch and started talking. They had found out that Larxene was not at work because it was her day off, Xigbar was with Xemnas discussing how to advertise the shop more, and Zexion decided to leave early because he had recently purchased a new book and was dying to finish it. They never questioned them about Marluxia's friend's whereabouts.

At first, while the guys were talking Namine felt a bit left out because she didn't know them and she was very shy but Roxas noticed this and included her in the conversation. After a while, Namine felt as if she had known Demyx and Luxord as long as she knew Axel. They were extremely funny and great friends.

Sora then stretched and got up. "Well, look at the time. I think we should leave. Besides, Namine is going to have a long day tomorrow since she will be hanging out with Kairi." Namine whipped her head to Sora and squealed. "You didn't tell me I was hanging out with Kairi tomorrow!" Roxas laughed and Sora said "Well, I want it to keep it a surprise but I guess the cat is out of the bag."

Namine was now very excited. Kairi was like her big sister and they would always tell each other secrets and when Namine had 'girl problems' she would talk to Kairi about them. When she first met Kairi she thought it was weird how alike they both looked, they could nearly pass for twins! But after a while she completely forgot about how much they looked alike and got along really well.

Everyone said their goodbyes and Zexion and Demyx made Namine promise to visit them again at the shop and Namine said that she would. Then Sora drove and dropped Namine, Roxas and Axel off at their apartment and helped take Namine's luggage to the apartment. "See you tomorrow guys, night!" "Bye Sora!" said Namine as she hugged her brother and Roxas and Axel gave him a pat on the back. Then Sora left to go to his apartment.

* * *

"Welcome to your new crib Nami!" yelled Axel as he showed Namine the apartment. It was a comfortable apartment with a kitchen and a large living room that had a big old stuffy couch and a big screen TV. The hallway lead to four doors, the very back lead to a bedroom. The one on the right was the bathroom and next to it was a room. Across from that room was another room. It wasn't a big fancy apartment but it had that homely feeling which Namine loved. Namine then noticed the door next to the bathroom had a white board on it with markers that said 'Namine's Room!' in bright blue letters.

Namine walked to the room and opened the door and she immediately fell in love with the room. The walls were painted white and a queen sized bed was in the corner and it had a pink and white bedspread on it. Instead of having a grey carpet like the rest of the house, her room was covered with a white fluffy carpet. Next to the bed was her closet and it wasn't the biggest but she was fine with that since she didn't have much clothes. On the right corner was a small desk where she would be able to do her homework. The desk had a few picture frames that had her, Roxas, Axel, Sora and Kairi on them. Namine was speechless about her room. She turned around grinning when she felt Roxas and Axel stare at her. "You guys did this for me?"

"Well, we painted. Kairi was the one who chose the bedspread, carpet and pictures. She said the room needed a feminine touch." Roxas replied glad to see that his sister appreciated their hard work in making her bedroom just right. "Thanks guys!" Namine gave Axel and Roxas a huge hug. "Anytime Nami!" both boys said.

Namine then yawned and looked at the time and it was 8pm. She looked at the boys and said "Well, I've had a long day; I think I'm going to sleep. I'll see you guys in the morning. I love you both!" She gave both of the guys a kiss on the cheek and then went into her brand new room and laid down.

It wasn't long before she went to sleep and dreamed of a certain pair of aquamarine eyes.

* * *

Wow that was 10 pages! How crazy is that?!?! Anyway, hopefully you guys liked this chapter and thank you so much for your reviews! You are all an inspiration! Next chapter will involve Kairi and Namine going to the mall, more Riku and Seifer action, and some crazy Axel antics!

Stay Tuned!

Thank You! :D


	3. Mall Madness

**New Beginnings**

AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?

Hey everybody! I've been working on this chapter a lot because it's my escape. I've had just had a bad week and this helps me relax. I found out my friend passed away in a car accident so this whole week has been a blur. I also had to write a 10 page paper for my government class and have been extremely busy. I'm graduating this year from High School so I'm very excited. Anywhoo, thank you so much for the reviews! By the way, I'm sorry about the way I describe clothes, I pretty much fail at that haha. I also changed the rating to T since some of the humor is not suitable for kiddies. haha anywhoo here's Chapter 3 of New Beginnings!

* * *

**Chapter 3: Mall Madness**

Namine was dreaming about a silver haired prince charming when all of a sudden-

"EARTHQUAKE!"

Namine jumped immediately and fell off her bed as she heard laughter at her door. Namine looked up and saw a redheaded man laughing while holding his stomach. "That was great!"

Namine glared fiercely at the older man and was about to get up and yell at him when she heard footsteps stopping next to Axel and a soft voice say "Axel, I thought we agreed that I was going to be the one to wake up Namine!"

Namine immediately got up from her carpet and ran to the mystery figure, bumping into Axel as hard as she could (even though it wasn't that hard at all) and gave the figure a hug.

"KAIRI!"

Namine gave Kairi a big bear hug and both girls squealed while Axel was covering his ears because he was too young to become deaf. Both of the girls let go of each other and Namine looked at the older girl.

Kairi was about a few inches taller than Namine but they were both built very petite so they would always borrow each others clothes. Kairi had shoulder-length red hair and she had the same blue eyes as Namine and the same facial structure. She was wearing her favorite pink outfit which she had designed. Kairi was majoring in fashion at Twilight University and hoped to have her very own fashion boutique. Kairi stared at her blonde haired friend and then grabbed her hand. "Namine is all grown up!" Kairi said as she twirled Namine and the blonde hair girl giggled.

Whenever Namine hung out with Kairi, Sora, Axel, and Roxas, people would always stop and ask the girls if they were sisters. It was common knowledge that Sora and Roxas were twins but it was hard to believe that Namine and Kairi were not related. Even though the two girls were not related they considered the other to be their sister.

"I still think it's creepy that you guys can pass as twins." Axel said as he looked at the two girls. Then a smirk appeared on his face as he said "Then again, maybe you can go to a twin convention and score me some twins!" Axel said as he raised his eyebrow in a suggestive manner.

Namine laughed while Kairi punched him on the shoulder and said "Wait until I tell Larxene this!" which made the redhead man glare at the other redhead. Larxene and Axel had been dating for 8 months which was a record for both of them. Axel wasn't used to keeping a steady relationship while Larxene had commitment issues. However, both of them worked their issues out and had been very happy ever since.

"I bet it's every girls dream to be with twins so I'm pretty sure Larxene wouldn't mind. I bet that even you Kairi wish that you could be with twins. Why have the slice when you can have the whole cake?" Axel retorted and Kairi rolled her eyes while Namine giggled. Then they heard someone behind Axel say "Please don't pollute my baby sister's mind with disturbing images." The three of them turned around and saw Roxas leaning against the wall. "By the way, breakfast is ready. I suggest you eat it fast girls or Axel will eat everything and you will just have to eat the crumbs."

Axel smirked at his best friend and went to the kitchen to see what food Roxas had just cooked for breakfast. Roxas, Namine, and Kairi quickly followed and saw that Roxas had cooked pancakes for breakfast; Namine's favorite breakfast food!

Namine took a seat next to Kairi while Roxas sat next to Axel and grimaced when he saw Axel devouring his eighth pancake. That's when Namine realized that someone was missing from their group. "Where's Sora?" Namine asked as she helped herself to some of the delicious pancakes. Kairi who was pouring orange juice in her cup said "Oh! He had to work today but he gets off at around 4pm so hopefully he will come and find us since we are going shopping today!"

Namine chocked on her pancake and Kairi had to pat her on the back. Namine liked clothes but she wasn't a fan of shopping. Every time she went shopping with Kairi she always thought that she would end up in jail. The last time she went with Kairi there was a huge sale and Kairi fought with an old woman over a light blue blouse. The old woman was going to call the police for harassment but Kairi quickly paid for the blouse and ran away with Namine leaving a cranky old lady behind.

"Kairi, I have enough clothes I don't think we should go shopping for more clothes." Namine said but Kairi gasped and looked at Namine as though she had just insulted her. "Nami, first of all we have to get you your new school uniform plus I noticed that you barely brought any clothes with you so don't worry, I'm here to save you!" Roxas and Axel laughed at Kairi's outburst but she glared at them making them stop their laughing.

Kairi was known for being feisty but just like Axel, they both had a fiery temper. Roxas, Namine, and Sora believed that all redheads had a bad temper and when they shared their theory with them…well let's just say it wasn't pretty.

Namine had taken a final bite of her pancakes and then put her dishes on the sink. She told Kairi that she was going to shower and change and then they would be off to the mall.

After Namine had showered she had decided to put on a pair of black skinny jeans, converse, a white tank top and a green sweater. She grabbed her purse and walked to the kitchen again. When she walked she saw Roxas was talking with Kairi and Axel was lying down on the sofa.

"I am so glad that I have the day off today again." Axel said as Roxas scowled at his friend. "Well, I should get going to work; Xemnas hates it when you're late. Kairi take care of Namine." Roxas said while Kairi said "Sir Yes Sir!" and Axel laughed. Roxas gave his sister and Kairi a hug and then left the apartment. "What are you going to do for the day, Axel?" Namine asked the redheaded male and he just shrugged. "Sleep, eat, sleep some more. You know the usual." He winked at the blonde and she just laughed. Kairi looked at her watch and gasped and said "Namine, let's go right now! The mall is calling our name!"

Kairi grabbed her, waved at Axel, and took Namine outside to her car. Both of the girls got in and Kairi brought the engine to life. "Ready to shop?" Namine only nodded and Kairi sped off towards the mall.

* * *

"So, why are we getting our uniforms today if we can get them tomorrow?" a boy wearing a beanie asked his silver haired companion. Both teens had absolutely no plans for the day and Riku decided that it would be a good time to get their uniforms. "Because Seifer, everybody gets their uniform on the last day of summer and I'd rather not spend my last day of summer waiting in line to get my uniform." Seifer looked at his friend and said "Good point. I'm surprised you thought about this thoroughly. Are you sure your okay?" Riku glared at Seifer while Seifer laughed.

The boys had been walking for a while and had finally arrived at the mall. They thought it was weird that their school did not supply their uniforms and instead they had to go the mall to get them. Riku and Seifer were frequent visitors of the uniform shop since they would rip and tear their uniform whenever they got into fights.

They finally reached the uniform shop and went inside. The shop was named 'Uniform Central' and it was a boring shop with grey walls and dozens of school uniforms everywhere. Since everyone would be getting their uniform the next day, the shop was pretty empty except for a few people and workers. The shop sold many school uniforms from around the area and each school area was labeled so you wouldn't get confused while trying and buy a different school uniform.

Seifer and Riku went to the 'Hollow Bastion High' section and looked at the men's sizes for the uniforms. Hollow Bastion had pretty bland uniforms for boys which nobody liked. The guys had to wear loose beige dress pants a white button up shirt with the sleeves reaching the elbows, and a plaid aqua blue tie. It was pretty boring but the school was known for its looks and if you attended Hollow Bastion, you had to look the part.

The boys went through the clothing racks and finally found their appropriate sizes and decided to try on the uniforms just in case they had gotten 'plumper' as Seifer had put it. The dressing room was split with the boys on the right and the girls on the left but in the middle of dressing rooms was a huge mirror with a mini-runway so you could see how well the uniform looked on you.

"Seriously Riku, you look like you gained 50 pounds or something. You ate like half of the world's supply of sea salt ice cream this summer." Seifer said while Riku replied with "You helped me eat it, idiot!" They both laughed and went to the dressing room.

While the boys were changing, a redhead was seen dragging a blonde to the mirror so she could see how the uniform looked on the blonde girl who claimed she looked horrible.

* * *

"Kairi! I look so bad in this!" Namine said as she was trying to stop the redhead from taking her to the mirror where people might see her in her 'hideous' state. Kairi, even though she was small had a lot of strength in her and pushed Namine with all her might and brought her to the mirror. "Nami! You do not look bad! You look cute!"

Namine was wearing the girl's school uniform and she was surprised that a school would let a girl wear this. She was wearing a plaid aqua blue skirt with black shoes, a white sleeveless button up shirt, and a matching plaid aqua blue tie (A/N: The school uniform Kairi was wearing in KHII pretty much). Namine felt the skirt was a bit too short for her tastes and was trying to pull it down but Kairi swatted her hands away from the skirt.

While Kairi and Namine were bickering, Riku got out of the dressing room to go check if his uniform looked okay when Riku's mouth dropped. He was staring at a blonde quarrelling with a redhead but he recognized who the blonde was. It was the girl he met yesterday, Namine!

That wasn't what made his jaw drop.

Her uniform looked…amazing on her! It fit her petite body perfectly but it seemed that the blonde did not like how it looked on her. Riku was still staring at Namine when Seifer came out of his dressing room. Seifer was wondering why his best friend was acting weird when he saw what had caused him to stare. It was Namine!

He looked from Riku to Namine and a huge grin spread on his face as he yelled "Looking good Namine!"

Namine and Kairi jumped when they heard the yell and turned around, which made Namine blush very crimson. She looked at Seifer who was grinning and had a thumb's up while Riku just smiled but was secretly glaring at Seifer. Namine gave them a shy smile and Kairi was simply confused.

"Namine, who are your friends?"

* * *

"_You are not the father"_

"_How dare you-_

"_In today's sports report-"_

"Boring!" an aggravated Axel said as he continued flipping channels on the TV. Axel was very bored but he couldn't get up from the couch. Axel was about to change another channel when he heard his cell phone vibrate and picked it up.

"Talk to me."

"Hey Axel."

Axel immediately got up and smiled at the phone. It was his girlfriend Larxene.

"Larxene, aren't you working today?"

He heard laughter and then Larxene said "Of course I am! I'm checking up on you. I'm on my break hanging out with your roomie who just lost a game of blackjack with Luxord. The boy will never learn."

Axel chuckled.

"That's Roxas for you. As much as I appreciate you checking up on me, there has to be another reason why you called huh?"

"I could never get one past you huh?"

"No you can't, I'm the great Axel, commit it to memory babe!"

He heard Larxene laugh through the phone but then calm down. Then she said "I was just wondering if you had anything planned for _today_?"

Axel tensed a bit as he heard the way she said today. Was today an important day? He wasn't sure but he didn't dare ask Larxene, so he pretended to tease her by saying:

"Well, I don't know, what is _today_ anyway, my dear Larxene?"

He heard Larxene laugh in the background and then said "Oh, your such a kidder, Axel! How could my boyfriend not _know_ what today is!" There was a pause and then she said "Oh I get it! You are pretending that you don't know what today is because you have something planned for me huh? Sneaky, sneaky! Oh well, I'll find out your surprise once I get off work and speaking of work, Xigbar is yelling at me because he needs help with his car. I'll see you later, Axel."

"Bye babe. See you later!"

Then he heard a click and immediately Axel started to panic.

He had no _idea_ what today was and the way that Larxene made it sound, it seemed as if today was a very important day. He decided to text his best friend since Larxene had mentioned that he was with her and hopefully he had answers.

_Dude, what the hell was Larxene talking about?_

A few seconds later he received a reply.

_What kind of boyfriend are you? You seriously don't know what today is? Even I know what today is!_

Axel growled and replied.

_Just tell me what today is before I sell your PlayStation 3._

A few minutes later he received the answer to his question which made him nearly have a heart attack.

_It's Larxene's birthday today, dumbass._

Crap.

Axel had forgotten that it was his girlfriend's birthday today plus she expected some kind of surprise from him which meant she wanted a really expensive gift since the girl had high tastes.

Now Axel was stuck in a sticky situation because he was a bad shopper when it came to buying a gift for people he cared about. He had given his friends crappy gifts such as scissors, tennis rackets, and he even gave Sora a hammer and Roxas a chainsaw for their 18th birthday. That was a fun day…

"Okay Axel. You need to give Larxene the best birthday present ever. The question is, who can I ask for help?" He pondered this for a few minutes when a name popped into his head. The good thing was that that certain person also had the day off today.

He quickly dialed the number and once he heard that certain person answer he said:

"How would you like to meet me at the mall in five minutes?"

* * *

_Oh my._

Namine could not think clearly as she saw the two boys looking at her with her uniform on. But what made her mind woozy was how good Riku looked with his uniform on. She was staring when she heard Kairi say

"Namine, who are your friends?"

"Oh!" Namine grabbed Kairi's hand and both the girls went towards the boys and then Namine introduced them. "Kairi, this is Riku-" she pointed to the silver haired boy "and this is Seifer. These are the boys I met yesterday while I went out to eat with my brothers and Axel. They are in my grade and we go to the same school."

Kairi shook the boys' hands and then Seifer asked "Are you Namine's sister?" Both of the girls looked at each other and burst out laughing which made Seifer sweat drop.

Kairi stopped laughing and said "Sorry about that, we get that a lot, but no we aren't sisters. I'm dating Namine's brother."

Namine looked at the boys faces when Kairi mentioned 'brother' and she quickly said "Not Roxas! You didn't meet my other brother Sora, Roxas's twin."

"There's two of them?!" exclaimed Riku while Kairi quickly replied with "He's the complete opposite of Roxas! He's the nicer twin." During the car ride to the mall, Namine had told Kairi about the boys she met and what Roxas had told them.

Kairi always knew that the brothers were very overprotective of their sister, especially Roxas and although she found it cute, sometimes it was a bit overbearing.

Kairi had also noticed the looks the silver haired boy was giving to the blonde and vise versa and she smiled. It reminded her so much of the looks she would give Sora before they started dating. Maybe she could play matchmaker for them? Kairi grinned evilly at that thought.

"Kairi, you have that look on your face."

Kairi stared at the blonde and innocently said "What look?" Namine glared at her and said "That look. You know the one that always spells trouble?" Kairi was about to reply when she heard her name being yelled and turned around.

She saw two of her closest friends Selphie and Yuffie. Selphie and Kairi had been friends ever since middle school and she had met Yuffie at her work. All three girls got along real well and they were really nice with Namine except Selphie who for some reason did not get along with her.

"Kairi! You are not going to believe it!" Selphie exclaimed when she reached her redheaded friend. Selphie waved at Namine and she waved back. Yuffie came up to the girls as well and gave Namine a hug which she returned. "HI NAMINE!" Namine sweat dropped. She had met Yuffie once before and she was extremely hyper. Namine could tell that right now, she was hyper as well.

"What's going on?" Kairi asked noticing her two friends were jumping up and down, especially Yuffie. "Ok so you know our favorite store at the mall?" Kairi nodded "Well, they are having this huge sale and being the great friend that I am I have come to tell you that they have that outfit that you have been saving up your money for half off!" Kairi shrieked which made Namine, Seifer, and Riku flinch and they looked at her funny when they saw that Kairi was jumping up and down with Yuffie.

Kairi and Yuffie stopped jumping and Kairi said "I'm with Namine though. I told her that we were going to go shopping today. I don't want to ditch Namine." Namine looked at Kairi and said "You go ahead Kairi, I'll just go find the bookstore or something. I know how much you like clothes so go for it! Besides, I think I do have plenty of clothes for now. We could go shopping another time." Namine smiled at the redhead to reassure her that she wasn't going to hurt her feelings by going to the sale.

Kairi smiled a grateful smile at the blonde and gave her a big hug but then an idea popped into her head. Since Namine was letting her go to the sale, she had to return the favor and let Namine have a fun time as well. "Okay then! And hey how about you hang out with Seifer and Riku so that way you won't be alone and you can get to know them more?" Namine secretly glared at the redhead while Kairi laughed. She then turned to the boys "Is that alright with you?"

"It's fine! Don't worry about it; Namine will be safe with me!" Seifer said as Riku snorted. "I don't think she will be safe with you, but she will be safe with me." He then put his arm around a blushing Namine.

Kairi had a big grin on her face as she looked at Namine and Riku. She thought they both looked adorable together! "Thanks guys! Namine, I'll call you when I'm done okay so we can meet up?" Namine nodded and Kairi waved at the teens and was then dragged away from them by Yuffie who yelled her goodbye to Namine while Selphie just nodded.

The three teens then looked at each other and Riku who still had his arm around Namine said "Well then, Namine, how about we get out of our uniforms, pay for them and go have some fun?"

* * *

"I can't believe you forgot your girlfriend's birthday."Axel's companion told him as the two were walking around the mall. This guy was not Axel's first choice to take to the mall but he was desperate since Roxas and Sora were at work and desperate times called for desperate measures. He wasn't even sure if his companion knew what to get a girl for her birthday.

"I didn't forget, Demyx, it just slipped my mind."

Demyx rolled his eyes at the redhead and said "Right…"

The two boys had been walking around for about an hour and had tried various stores but nothing seemed appropriate for Larxene. Demyx suggested a gift card but Axel knew Larxene would beat him up for that. Axel thought of getting her clothes but he didn't know her size. Demyx thought that maybe lotion would be good for her but Axel thought that Larxene wouldn't appreciate it if he had gotten her some cheap fruity lotion. Demyx, being the idiot that Axel knew he was said that he should give her some punching gloves so her punches could be twice as deadly. The boy just like Axel, was not very good at buying gifts. Axel thought that maybe just maybe if he had combined his bad gifting with Demyx's bad gifting, they would find a great present for Larxene. However, that logic failed horribly.

This was going to be harder than he thought.

They were walking past a store when Axel looked inside and spotted a familiar face among the crowd of thousands of girls. "Kairi!" Axel yelled and saw the familiar face look at him and find her way outside of the shop towards him. "Hey Axel! Hey Demyx!" Kairi said once she reached them.

"What's going on? It seems as if there's a war going on in there." Demyx said as he noticed five ladies fighting over a purple shirt. Kairi laughed and said "There's a sale right now so everybody is fighting for everything. I already got what I wanted but I lost Selphie and Yuffie."

Axel snapped his head towards Kairi and said "I thought you were with Namine? DID YOU LOSE HER?!?!" Kairi and Demyx stepped away from Axel, Axel was a fun person but when he was mad or worried, well you didn't want to be in his way. "No, I did not lose Namine. She didn't' want to go to the sale so I told her that I would call her when I was done!" Kairi was smart enough to leave out the part that she had left Namine with two teenage boys. No need to worry Axel even more.

Kairi then took one of the bags from her arms and gave it to Axel who looked at her questioningly. "Roxas texted me and told me that you had forgotten Larxene's birthday. Knowing your tastes in presents, I decided to be your life saver and I bought Larxene a gift that is from you."

Axel opened the bag and inside was jewelry box. He opened the jewelry box and inside was a silver necklace with a silver heart pendant. The heard had a red rose on it and three little red hearts and Axel noticed that it was a locket. Even though this necklace was girly and Larxene was anything but girly, she adored jewelry and diamonds were definitely her best friend.

"I saw Larxene look at it some many times when I came with her to the mall. You could tell she really wanted it. You owe me though!"

Axel closed the box and then grabbed Kairi and pulled her into a big hug and swung her around. "THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" he exclaimed while Kairi and Demyx laughed.

"Hey! Get your hands off my girlfriend!" A playful voice was heard and Axel stopped spinning around with Kairi in his arms. The three friends saw a blue eyed boy with a goofy grin coming towards them.

"SORA!"

Kairi got out of Axel's arms and went to hug her boyfriend. Axel and Demyx heard an 'oof' from Sora, realizing that Kairi had probably tackled her boyfriend. They waited until the couple had kissed before joining them.

"Hey guys!" Sora said as he did his special handshake with the boys. When Sora, Roxas, and Axel were still in high school, they decided to create a secret handshake that could only be shared with close male friends. Demyx had become a close friend to all three of the boys so they let him in on the secret handshake, along with Luxord and Zexion. They had tried getting Xigbar to do it but he claimed it was too childish for him.

"Sora, your girlfriend just saved my ass!" Axel said as Sora replied with "Yeah, Kairi texted me telling me you forgot Larxene's birthday."Axel's vein popped out of his forehead and while clenching his fists said "I did not forget!"

Demyx, Sora, and Kairi sweat dropped when Sora looked around and noticed that his little sister wasn't with the group. "Where is Namine?" Kairi quickly explained to Sora about Namine and Sora said "Call her then, I feel like eating out tonight! Roxas should be here soon, I told him to meet us at the mall so we could take you girls out to eat." Kairi smiled at her boyfriend and then said "Okay, let me call her."

She got out her pink cell phone and dialed Namine's number and waited for a reply.

* * *

"RIKU LOOK OUT!"

"I AM! YOU ARE GETTING IN MY WAY!"

"NO I'M NOT! I'M TRYING TO SAVE YOU!"

"SEIFER BEHIND YOU!"

"OH NO HE GOT ME! I'M DEAD! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Namine was laughing at Seifer's dramatic antics after losing the game that they had been playing for a while. The boys had taken her to the arcade that was in the mall and they had played numerous racing games, Dance Dance Revolution (which Namine had beaten the boys at) and air hockey. Right now they were playing a Resident Evil game. They had gone far and they would take turns playing so that way, everyone could play. They had to pass one more level before finishing the game when Seifer died and a few minutes later, Riku died.

The screen read GAME OVER in bright red letter which made the boys very angry. "We were so close! Damn those zombies!" Seifer said while Riku nodded in agreement. Namine wasn't going to lie to herself, she really enjoyed their company. Sure she had just met them yesterday, but they unlike other people actually included her in their conversations and activities. She was very scared about hanging out with them because she didn't want to be a third wheel but they made her feel like she belonged. She also thought they would treat her differently after her brother had threatened them but surprisingly they didn't mention anything about that. Those two had grown on her in a matter of hours but she was still very shy around them.

However with Riku, she felt much more open with. When Namine and Riku were playing air hockey together (Seifer said he had to go to the bathroom) Namine found it easy to talk to Riku about almost everything. Riku told her about his homelife and Namine told him about her social life (which wasn't that much). Namine wasn't ready to disclose personal information about her life with him just yet but she knew eventually he would find out.

Riku was drawn to the quiet and shy girl. There was something about her that made him want to protect her. She was fragile but had a very brave heart which he admired. He knew that he did not want to see her hurt. Namine had told him that back in her hometown she was always picked on and harassed at her old school and she never really talked to anyone. She mostly kept to herself. Riku hated when people picked on others just because they looked weaker to them. He despised people like that and whenever he saw someone getting picked on, he would defend them, no matter who the person was. He was going to make sure that Namine would never get picked on or harassed again.

Riku did not like the fact that Namine was constantly being picked on all the time and how she really didn't have any friends her age. What happened next made Namine blush like crazy.

Riku had gone over to her and made sure that she looked him in the eyes. "I promise you, this year will be different. I will make sure no one hurts you and don't worry; you have a friend in me." He then hugged her and smiled at her. His smile made her knees go weak and if it wasn't for the fact that Riku was still holding her, she was pretty sure she would have fallen.

"So what do you say, Namine?"

Namine quickly snapped out of her trance and noticed that Seifer and Riku were staring at her and asking for her opinion. The thing was, she had no idea what they just asked.

"Um..sure?"

Namine hoped that that was the right answer.

"Ok then! Let's go to the food court and eat!"

Seifer started walking out of the arcade and going to the food court and said "Come on you slow pokes! I don't want the food to be gone because you guys kept me away from it!"

Riku laughed and then both started walking towards the food court but Riku stopped beside Namine and held his arm out. "I'm going to be your escort to the food court milady. I will make sure you won't get lost. Come, and let's go to the wonderful place that is the food court."

Namine laughed a bright and happy laugh which made Riku happy inside. He liked her laugh. It sounded like music to his ears. He wasn't sure why he was acting like this; it was just something about her that made him want to act goofy yet chivalrous.

Namine found Riku's chivalrous act very cute and sweet. She decided that no harm would be done if she linked her arm with Riku's so she did just that.

"Ok then Sir Riku! Lead the way!"

Riku and Namine then followed Seifer who smirked at their linked arms and the three went to the food court.

With all the fun Namine was having, she failed to hear her a soft tone that was coming from her cell phone.

* * *

"That's strange." Kairi said as the phone call went to the voice mail yet again. This was the fifth time that she had tried calling Namine and she didn't answer. Kairi had told them that she let her hang out with the boys she met yesterday which made Sora and Axel pretty worried. Demyx was trying to calm them down by telling jokes that fell flat.

"Namine usually answers her phone! You don't think something bad happened do you?" Sora said while Axel said "I bet those boys did something to her! How could you let her hang out with them?"

Kairi glared at Axel "I don't think they did something to her! They seem really sweet! You are the one who's overreacting. I'm positive that Namine is fine, we just have to find her!" She snapped at Axel.

"Who do we have to find?"

Kairi, Sora, Axel, and Demyx turned and saw a blonde haired figure watching them with his arms crossed and his eyes glaring at them. They all gulped.

They were in so much trouble.

"H-Hey bro!" Sora said as he tried to do his handshake with Roxas who merely ignored him. Roxas looked at the group and noticed that one was missing. A certain little sister of his.

"Where is Namine?"

"Well you see…We don't know."

They quickly explained to Roxas the situation and were expecting Roxas to have a heart attack but surprisingly he didn't. He was eerily quiet though which they didn't take as a good sign.

"Roxas, you okay?"

Roxas took a deep breath and said "I'm trying very hard to remain calm. Don't say anything that will make me scream at you guys for losing my sister."

Kairi, Demyx, and Sora stepped away from Roxas to give him some space.

Axel then snapped his fingers and said "Maybe she's at the food court! I mean isn't the bookshop by there? She could have bought a book there and is reading it at the moment. You know how she forgets the world when she reads a book."

Everyone looked at Axel and agreed with him. That did sound like something Namine would do. "Okay then, to the food court we go!" Sora said as he saw Roxas and Axel run towards the food court.

Kairi, Sora, and Demyx stayed behind and power walked to the food court so they wouldn't get the weird looks that Roxas and Axel were receiving. They hoped that Namine was at the food court.

* * *

"Welcome to the promise land!" Seifer said to Namine as she looked at the biggest food court she had ever seen. It had every single type of food from around the world and a small book shop was station in between two big food shops. No wonder why Seifer called it the promise land!

Seifer ran to get a soda while Riku offered to find them a table, leaving Namine all by herself. Little did she know that someone was watching her.

Marluxia was bored, very bored. He had gone to grab a quick dinner with his friend Saix at the huge food court that the mall had and he had just finished it. Both were very bored and wanted something _exciting _to happen. Apparently the Gods were on his side because as he took a sip of his drink, he noticed a certain tiny blonde standing by herself.

_Namine._

That was her name. He thought it was a pretty name for a pretty girl. He loved the way she looked at him with her frightened blue eyes yesterday. Something about her fright made him want more of it. Call him a sick man, but Marluxia didn't care. There was just something about making girls scared that made him enjoy their fright. You could say he was sadistic in a way. Oh well. He looked at the blonde girl one time and decided to give the girl another fright just to see her squirm again.

He nudged Saix and pointed at the blonde, making his blue haired friend grin. Marluxia stood up from his chair and gave Saix an evil grin.

"It's time for some entertainment."

* * *

Namine had no idea what to get to for food. Everything looked so good! She was very bad at decision making. She decided that she would ask Riku what to get and was about to go find him when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped and turned around to see who had done that. She wished she hadn't turned around.

"Well, well, well, looks like the princess is all by herself. Where are your body guards?"

Riku had found the perfect table and decided to just set his jacket there so people would know that seat was taken. He then decided to go look for some food when he noticed that a very tall figure (about an inch or so taller than him, Riku thought) with pink hair was looming over Namine who looked very uncomfortable. Riku glared at the figure and made his way over to Namine.

"G-Go away." Namine said as she was trying to get away from Marluxia's gaze. She really wished someone was there to help her she felt extremely awkward around this guy who was looking at her with a really bad expression. Namine tried to get away but Marluxia laughed and then grabbed Namine's arm which made Namine flinch with pain.

"How about we go somewhere private?"

He applied some pressure on her arm which made Namine gasp at the pain that his grip was giving her.

"Leave her alone!"

Both figures turned and looked at Riku, who was glaring viciously at Marluxia. Namine, noticing that Marluxia's grip on her had lessened immediately ran to Riku as Marluxia laughed yet again. "How many bodyguards do you have, Princess?"

Namine did not like the fact that Marluxia kept calling her 'princess'. She was about to say something when she noticed that the blue haired guy, that Marluxia was with yesterday, Saix came up to Marluxia. "Hello there, Namine. Nice to see you again." He said which made Namine uneasy.

Riku, sensing Namine's uneasiness was staring at the two adults with disgust. What kind of freak would want to harm a pure girl like Namine? It made him sick to his stomach. Riku then noticed that Seifer was behind the two men holding something in his hands. Realizing what that something was and looking at Seifer's mischievous smile he knew what his best friend was going to do. Riku smirked. He felt grateful that he had Seifer at times like these.

The pink haired man was about to say something when Seifer striked. He poured his soda all over the pink haired man and the blue haired man. "Don't mess with my friends!" Seifer yelled as he went up to Riku and high fived him. Both the boys were laughing at the adults and Namine was beyond shocked.

Marluxia was trying to wipe the soda off of his hair and if looks could kill, Namine, Seifer, and Riku would be dead. Saix was beyond angry as well as he glared at the teens and said "You will pay for this!" He was about to punch Riku when they heard someone yell "STOP!"

Roxas and Axel had arrived just in time to see that Saix was about to punch the silver haired boy that they had met. Namine heard her brother yell and immediately ran towards him and hugged him.

Moments later, Sora, Kairi, and Demyx showed up and noticed Namine clinging to her brother for dear life. Axel was glaring viciously at Marluxia and asked "What did you do?!"

"None of your business, Namine and I were just having a _friendly_ conversation when these two imbeciles showed up." Marluxia pointed at Seifer and Riku who glared at him.

"Friendly conversation my ass! You grabbed Namine's arm and hurt her!" Riku said as he kept glaring at Marluxia. Roxas was about to go up to Marluxia and beat him up, but Marluxia just waved him off and said "Well, I think it's time I leave. See you later, _Princess._" Once again Marluxia and Saix had made their escape.

Namine, who was still hugging her brother let go and looked up at him. "Did he hurt you Nami?" Roxas asked his sister while Namine bit her lip and nodded. "He just grabbed my arm and applied to much pressure on it. I'm fine though, don't worry about it. If it wasn't for Riku or Seifer, he might have done something much worse."

Sora looked at the two teens and sighed. "Thanks for saving her" he said while Roxas nodded. "I suppose you two aren't_ too_ bad."

Riku and Seifer grinned at Roxas.

"You aren't so bad yourself, _Roxy._" Seifer said as he earned a glared from Roxas. Axel, Demyx, and Sora laughed and Namine let out a small giggle. Seifer then looked at his watch and his eyes widened. "Crap! I told my mom I'd do the chores of the house today. I have to go do them before she comes home!" Riku said "I'll walk with you to your house since it is getting kind of late." Seifer nodded and Riku looked at Namine. "Today was a fun day Namine. I'll see you at school then. Take care!"Seifer smiled at Namine and said "See ya later, Namine!"

Namine looked at the two boys and said "Thanks for spending the afternoon with me and for saving me from Marluxia. I'll see you at school." She gave them a warm smile and the two teens waved and walked away.

"Well, it's getting late so I think we should leave now. I told Sora we would take you girls to eat, so let's go."

Kairi cheered while Sora laughed and asked Demyx or Axel if they wanted to come. Demyx of course agreed since it was free food but Axel declined since he had to go see a special girl. "I'll see you guys later! Take care kids!" Axel said as he did his handshake with the guys and hugged the girls. Before leaving he made sure that Namine was alright and then went on his way.

Sora told Roxas that he would go with Kairi since he had walked to the mall and he would give her a ride to the restaurant that they had just chosen. Demyx also decided to go with Kairi since he didn't really trust Roxas's driving. "We'll see you in about five minutes!" Sora said as the three left to go to Kairi's car.

Namine then looked at her older brother and noticed that he was still very tense. "You okay Roxas?" she asked. Roxas looked down at his younger sister and saw the concern her blue eyes held.

Roxas was extremely angry with Marluxia. He didn't like the fact that he was now targeting his sister for his sick games and he even had the nerve to hurt her arm. He knew that if Marluxia came close enough to Namine again, he would personally be the one to kill him. He was shaken when he saw Namine's eyes with fear when she was with Marluxia. He did not like that look on her at all and loathed it when he saw Marluxia's eyes were expressing pure joy.

He then decided that he woudln't let Marluxia damper his mood. He would take care of Marluxia later. He then smiled at his younger sister who smiled back at him.

"I'm fine Namine, Just fine. Now let's go eat!"

With that, the two Heart siblings left to go grab something to eat.

* * *

WOW! 17 pages! How crazy is that?!?! Anywhoo, I hope you liked this chapter! I'll probably update during my spring break (which is in a week :D) so I'm excited about that. I will reply to reviewers on my next chapter! Thank you guys so much for encouraging me to write!

You guys Rock!

Thank You! :D


	4. School Daze

**New Beginnings**

AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?

A/N: Hey everbody! Sorry for the late update, I'm officially on spring break so I can now use my time wisely and update a brand new chapter! Plus I got a brand new laptop so I had to put all my old information into this new computer. This was really fun to write since I introduce the high school kiddies woo haha! Anywhoo, here is chapter 4!

* * *

**Chapter 4: School Daze**

The next day went by like a blur in Namine's opinion. She had gone with Roxas to get school supplies and she also got a white backpack. Plus she also got new art supplies and a new sketchbook since her old sketchbook was filled up with drawings. After spending the afternoon shopping, Namine and Roxas went back to their apartment and spent the evening playing video games and just being lazy. When Axel came back from work, the trio ate some spaghetti made by Roxas and then they watched some TV. At around 11pm, Namine decided to retire for the night since she had to get up early for school tomorrow and bid the boys goodnight.

Before she went to bed, Namine decided to pack her school supplies now rather than in the morning so that way she wouldn't feel so rushed. She grabbed her backpack and put in it a few binders that were filled with paper, pencils, erasers, two notebooks and last but not least her new sketchbook. Namine always brought her sketchbook with her no matter what. She always seemed to get her inspiration to draw from the most random places.

Once she was done with that, she went to her closet and took out her pajamas and went to take a shower. Namine loves to sleep and she would always take a shower at night so she could have a few more minutes of extra sleep in the morning instead of wasting those precious minutes taking a shower. Besides, she believed that the shower would help calm her nerves down.

Namine always hated the first day of school; she could never sleep the night before the New Year starts because she was extremely nervous on how people would treat her in the upcoming year. Now, she was twice as nervous because not only did she have to deal with that but also she was going to a new school where she didn't know how people treated others. She hoped that these teens were much more nicer people than the ones she had left behind on Destiny Islands.

After showering (which helped her calm down a little), Namine put on her pajamas and then brushed her teeth and gurgled some mouthwash that she had brought with her. Then she proceeded to tie up her wet hair in a messy ponytail. Once she was satisfied with that, she got out of the bathroom and hopped into her comfy bed ready for a sleepless night. She went to over to her alarm clock and set it so it would wake her up at around 6:40am. School didn't start until 8am and it wasn't very far from the apartment, at least that's what Axel had told her and besides it didn't take her that long to get ready since she prepared everything the night before.

She was just getting comfortable on her bed when she heard her phone vibrate once underneath her pillow, signaling that she had a new text. She grabbed it and opened the screen to read the text message that someone had sent her.

_Hey. You nervous about tomorrow?_

Namine smiled at the text message and replied back.

_I'm always nervous the night before the new school year starts, you know that Sora. This time it's different though since I'm new this year._

She sent the text and sighed while waiting for a reply. This was a tradition that she had completely forgotten about. Every night before the start of the new school year, Sora would text her and comfort her. Back in Destiny Islands, he comforted her with his texts but he would have much rather preferred to visit her in her room and comfort her there but that would wake up his mom and then he would end up in getting yelled at by their mother. Although Roxas was considered the mature twin, there were times when Sora would be really serious. In those times, Sora would put all jokes aside and help you out no matter what.

Her phone vibrated and Namine looked at her brother's reply.

_Think of this as a new adventure Nami. I remember the first time I came here I was a bit nervous but people here are so much nicer than they are in Destiny Islands. I know you will be fine here and you will make loads of friends like Roxas, Axel, Kairi and I did. It's really easy to make friends here! Besides, you have already made friends, Seifer and Riku right? They seem like good kids and they owned Marluxia, which is a plus._

Namine laughed at her brother's text and felt slightly better. She has always been envious of Sora's carefree nature and happy-go-lucky attitude. She wished she had the confidence that Sora had so she could make friends easily. Sora on the other hand, was envious of his sister's artistic abilities since Sora could barely draw a stick figure that looked like a human. It looked more like a blob with four sticks coming out of it.

_They are really nice guys! But it was easy for you to make friends. Your fun and talkative and I'm shy and quiet. What if Seifer and Riku ignore me tomorrow? What if people start picking on me? What if I get lost? What if space aliens abduct me? You don't know that._

Ok, so Namine was exaggerating a little, she has been spending too much time with Axel. Axel, who is a sci-fi lover, always watches UFO specials and paranormal shows late at night. He claimed that aliens abducted him once but nobody believed him.

_I'm not sure if aliens will abduct you, but you need to stop thinking negative Nami. I thought you had left all your negativity at Destiny Islands. Think about now, with me, Roxas, Kairi and Axel. Twilight Town is your new beginning. I know your shy Nami, but the Nami back at home wouldn't have hung out with those two boys she met. I can tell they are good people, I doubt they would ditch you. Don't worry about it Nami, you already made friends and if someone messes with you, we will mess with them back!_

Namine laughed quietly at her brother's text and realized that he was right. If she kept constantly worrying about every little detail and on how she wouldn't make friends, then she wouldn't have fun. She was starting a brand new chapter in her life and she had a feeling that Seifer nor Riku would abandon her, especially Riku. She knew that Riku already held her trust and she prayed he wouldn't break it.

_You always know how to cheer me up Sor. That really calmed me down a lot. You are right, I'm just nervous but I think I'll be all right. Besides, you, Roxas, Kairi and Axel are just a phone call away if I need you guys. I think I 'm going to sleep now. Thanks Sor! I love you!_

Namine put her blanket on top of her and was fluffing her pillow when she received Sora's reply.

_Anytime Nami! If you ever need anything I'm here for you. Have fun tomorrow and keep your head up high! You're the best sis ever! Love you and night! :D_

Smiling, Namine put her cell phone underneath her pillow and snuggled into her bed. Slowly but surely, with Sora's words in her mind she fell asleep.

* * *

A loud beeping was heard and Namine groaned as she hit her alarm clock to shut down the alarm.

Time for school.

Namine slowly got up and stretched. She had a decent amount of sleep but she kept waking up every now and then. Getting up from her bed Namine headed to her closet and got out her uniform and then went to her bathroom.

After quickly changing into her uniform, Namine pulled her hair out of her ponytail and brushed it and then styled it the way she normally wears her hair. (A/N: Like how she has her hair in the KH games). Satisfied with her hair, Namine left her bathroom, grabbed her backpack and went to get some breakfast.

When Namine entered the kitchen she saw Axel who was munching on a muffin, leaning on one of the chairs, his feet on the table and Roxas sitting in a chair next to him sipping some coffee. They both turned when they heard Namine enter the kitchen.

"Sleep well, Nami?" Axel asked as Namine grabbed a muffin from the basket full of muffins that was on the center of the table. "Sort of. I would probably not have slept if Sora hadn't texted me last night."

"Sora always knows what to say to calm everybody's nerves." Roxas said while Namine smiled at her brother. "I suggest you hurry up Namine, it takes at least 10 minutes to get to your school but you will need extra time to go to the office and get your schedule." Namine quickly ate her muffin and drank some orange juice. "There, I'm done!" Namine said and got up from the table and saw her brother get up as well. "I'll take Namine to school, Axel. I'll see you at work!"

"Bye Nami. Have fun in school! Don't get into any fights young lady!" Axel said as he gave the little blonde a hug and did his secret handshake with Roxas. The blondes grabbed the stuff that they would need for the day and hopped into Roxas's car.

The drive was pretty quiet and very relaxing in Namine's opinion. But that relaxation ended all too soon as she noticed her brother pull the car to a complete stop in front of a large building with multiple teens wearing what Namine was wearing.

"Welcome to Hollow Bastion High, Nami!"

Namine looked at the building with nervous eyes. Sure, the high school she went to in Destiny Islands was bigger but this school looked at bit more intimidating. Roxas, noticing his sister's discomfort put his arm around her and Namine looked at him.

"Don't be scared Namine. You will be all right, don't worry about it. Just keep your head up high and you'll do fine."

"That's what Sora told me last night."

"Well, Sora may be a bit slow, but the boy does know how to give good advice."

Namine giggled which made Roxas smile and he said, "See? Just be happy and everything will be okay. I'll pick you up after school, okay?" Namine nodded and then hugged her brother. "Thanks Roxas. See you later!" Roxas nodded and watched his sister get out of the car but then he heard his sister's name being called and the two siblings turned to see who had yelled the younger sister's name.

* * *

"I could not get up this morning. I thought I was having a nightmare that school started today until I realized that my nightmare is a reality." A boy with silver hair said to his companion.

Seifer and Riku hated the first day of school because they had to get up extra early since neither of them had their driver license yet and had to walk to school. The first day felt longer since they were so used to sleeping in and now they had to wake up at around 5am. Riku's dad always left to work early and wouldn't come back to the house until later in the night and it was the same with Seifer's parents so they had to walk to school. Riku did have a car but he only had his permit and was going to take his driver's test next week. Seifer prayed that his best friend would get it since he was tired of walking around everywhere and it would be much more convenient to drive around to places instead.

"Same here! But hey look on the bright side. At least you get to see Namine." The silver haired boy punched his best friend in the gut which made him emit an 'oof' from the impact. Riku smirked at Seifer while Seifer glared at him.

Ever since they had met Namine, Seifer would tease Riku about his 'infatuation' with the blonde girl. Riku would ignore Seifer although they both knew that it was true that he indeed had a soft spot for her even though they had only known her for two days.

As the boys neared the entrance of the school they noticed a black car park near them and a blonde figure get out of the car. "It's Namine, your future wife!" Seifer said and Riku hit his best friend on the head. Riku who noticed that Namine hadn't seen them yet decided to yell her name.

"NAMINE!"

He noticed the blonde girl turn around but also noticed another blonde in the car Namine had just gotten out of turn and look at their direction.

It was Roxas.

They finally reached Namine and both the boys greeted her. They noticed that the passenger seat window was rolling down and Roxas was staring at the trio. "Hey there Roxy!" Riku said while Roxas glared at them. "If isn't my favorite kids in the whole wide world." Roxas sarcastically commented while Seifer yelled out "Hey! We are not kids!"

"Whatever you say, kiddies. Namine have fun in school, see you after school!" Namine waved at her brother and with that the eldest Heart sibling sped off to work.

"Ready for a great year, Namine?!" Namine nodded and felt some of her nervousness slip away. She then asked, "Do you guys know where the main office is?" "Of course we do! The main office is our third home. Our second home is detention." Seifer said while Riku replied with "Well, technically our third home is the Principal's office, and the main office is our fourth home. Since the main office is where the Principal's office is located, we became great friends with the secretary, especially Seifer."

All last year, while the boys waited to be yelled at by Principal Yen Sid, they had started talking to his new secretary, Paine Nguyen, a headstrong young woman who Seifer had developed a bit of a crush on.

"Hey! She totally digs me. I'm pretty sure she's waiting for me to turn 18 so we can finally be together."

Riku snorted and said "Or maybe, she's not interested in you and wants a _real_ man and not a high school teen."

"Whatever man, now let's go! My future wife is probably waiting for me to come!"

Riku and Namine burst out laughing and followed Seifer to the main office, which wasn't far away from the entrance of the school.

* * *

Roxas had just arrived to work and was currently in the boy's locker room changing into his work uniform. He didn't want to admit it to Namine, but he felt very nervous about leaving her in a new school.

It wasn't that he feared for her safety, it was just back in their old school, people would tease Namine and at least someone from their old school would be there to protect her from the bullying. This time however, she was alone and he wasn't sure how the teens of this town acted.

Well, she wasn't alone per say, she had those two boys with her, what where their names again?

Oh he knew their names all right but he'd just call them kids for now.

Even though the teens had saved his baby sister from Marluxia, Roxas still wasn't too sure about the boys yet. It was probably his overprotective nature, but Roxas wanted to make sure that his sister would not ever get hurt. He felt he could trust the boys but you weren't really certain when it came to teenage boys. Roxas was their age once and he knew what boys thought about at that age.

He was also on edge because he knew Marluxia would be at work today. He was still mad about what Marluxia had done at the mall to his sister and it worried him that Marluxia would try something else. He knew that if Marluxia said something, he would start a fight with him but he'd try to restrain himself until after work so that way he wouldn't get in trouble. However, since his nerves were out of control he wasn't sure how much self-control he'd have if Marluxia came to confront him.

"Earth to Roxas!"

Roxas snapped out of his thoughts and turned to see his best friend leaning against his locker and looking at him.

"You're worried about Namine, aren't you?"

Roxas sighed and shrugged his shoulders. He could never get one past his best friend. He knew him almost as well as his brother. "I can't help it. You know how kids treated Nami back in our old school. Plus, I really don't want to deal with Marluxia's bullshit today after what he did to my sister at the mall."

Axel nodded in understanding and walked towards his best friend. "I know you can easily ignore Marluxia so you don't have to worry too much about that. We will keep you occupied so you don't try anything on Marly while working. I'm pretty sure Namine will be fine at school so don't worry. Geez, you really worry a lot about your siblings huh?"

Axel has an older brother named Reno and although he loves his brother, the two constantly bickered and teased each other a lot. Axel's brother wasn't as caring as Roxas was to his siblings. When they were little if Axel fell, Reno would laugh at him whereas if Sora or Namine fell, Roxas was immediately by their side asking them if they were okay and buying them sea salt ice cream to make them feel better.

"Well, someone has to be worried about them." Roxas said bitterly and Axel looked at his best friend. Axel had come from a loving family and Roxas hadn't. Axel knew that Roxas's mom did not care at all for her children and it was very heartbreaking to see. Axel admired Roxas for singlehandedly raising his siblings by himself and making sure to help them out whenever possible. It also helped that Axel's family welcomed them with open arms whenever their mom kicked the children out of the house so she could do her 'drugs in peace.'

Axel's parents had told Roxas that they could adopt them but Roxas declined because he didn't want to burden Axel anymore with his family problems. His parents respected that but helped Roxas anyway possible.

"Don't worry too much about them, Roxas. You raised them well and if someone does try to hurt Namine, you know we can easily go to the school and beat them up."

Roxas smirked at his friend "Us beat up high school kids? What has this world come too?" Axel gave his friend a smile and said, "Come on, let's go. We have lots of cars to fix in so little time! Besides, we can check out the babes that come. Even though we have girlfriends, it won't hurt too look."

Roxas rolled his eyes at his perverted friend and closed his locker and walked out of the locker room with him and to the shop to begin another exciting day at work.

(A/N: In this story, Roxas is dating Olette and she will be introduced in the next chapter! Sorry about not saying that in advance!)

* * *

Seifer, Riku, and Namine had finally reached the main office and were walking up to a woman who Namine presumed to be Seifer's 'friend'. The silver haired woman looked up at the trio and smiled at them.

"Seifer, Riku! Already in trouble? School hasn't even started yet!"

"Surprisingly, we aren't here because we got in trouble. We are here because we are helping out the new student, Namine."

Namine stared at the secretary who was staring back at her. Namine had never met anyone with red eyes but she thought they suited her just fine. "Oh! Well hello there, Namine! My name is Paine Nguyen but you can just call me Paine and welcome to Hollow Bastion High! I'm very surprised that the boys are actually not up to mischief and are actually doing something good."

"We can be good guys Paine, but then were would the fun be in that? Besides, I bet you would miss my company since this office is pretty lonely." Seifer remarked while Paine rolled her eyes. Hollow Bastion's secretary wasn't blind and she knew about Seifer's crush on her but he was a fun guy and it was true that her job would be very quiet and boring without these two boys coming to the office at least every other day.

"Anyway, Namine since you are a new student let me go get your schedule, your locker number and combination, and a map of the school. It's not too big so I doubt you will get lost and besides these two knuckleheads can help you. They know the whole school like the back of their hand." "It's true Namine. We know everything the school has to offer." Riku said as he looked at Namine.

"Here it is, Namine Heart! Here is your schedule and everything else. If you need anything just ask these two boys or come to me if you get bored of them."

"Nobody can get bored of us!" Seifer said and Paine laughed. "That is true! Now off you go to class, you have five minutes before class starts!" The three teens left the office and Namine immediately looked at her schedule.

Period 1-English

Period 2-Art

Period 3-Math

Period 4-Science

Lunch

Period 5-History

Period 6-Study Hall

It wasn't too bad, she just wished she didn't have to take math but it was a requirement. She failed horribly at math and was barely able to get a B in her last year's math class. She also didn't have to take PE since in Destiny Islands; she already filled the PE requirements for High School and didn't have to take PE anymore. She was extremely happy that she had art though and was secretly glad that she had brought her sketchbook with her so she could start drawing right away.

"Let me see your schedule Namine!" Riku said and Namine showed it to him and Seifer looked at it as well. "Aw man! We only have 3 classes and lunch together!" Seifer said as he compared his schedule with Namine's schedule. He told her that they had Math, History, and Study Hall together. Riku on the other hand was still taking his sweet time comparing schedules.

After a minute, he said "Well, Namine looks like your going to be stuck with me for a while. We have every class together except second period. While you're in art, I'll be in Weight Training with Seifer."

Namine was surprised that Riku was in almost all of her classes. She was relieved that at least she would know someone in all of her classes but a bit nervous since, well she was still pretty shy around him and she wasn't sure if he was going to ditch her in class to sit with other friends.

"Oh crap! We have four minutes before class starts! I'll see you guys in math! See you losers later!" Seifer said and he quickly ran to his class, leaving Riku and Namine alone.

Riku had noticed that Namine hadn't said anything about him having almost all of the same classes and wasn't sure if she wanted to have classes with him or not. Riku then started walking and Namine followed him since he knew where the classroom was. "Our English teacher hates it when students are late. She locks the door of her classroom so she won't let tardy students in. She's psycho!"

Namine looked at Riku hoping that he was joking but he wasn't. "It's this way, come on Nami!" Riku said and Namine stopped walking. He had called her Nami, only people who were extremely close to her and trusted her called her that. Did that mean that he trusted her? She looked at Riku and saw that his eyes held concern since she had just stopped walking. When she looked at his eyes she couldn't help but blurt out "Are you going to ditch me in class?"

Namine's eyes widened.

She hadn't met to let that slip! Blast his aqua eyes! She swore his eyes were hypnotizing her into telling him everything about her. Her insecurities, her fears, everything!

Riku stared at her and then said, "What makes you think that? Of course not, I'm not that kind of a person. Remember our promise? I'm not ditching you Namine, whether you like it or not, you are stuck with me this whole year."

The remaining nervousness that Namine had slowly evaporated as she stared at the silver haired boy. She smiled at Riku and said "Thanks. I'm glad that I'm stuck with you Riku." Out of impulse, she gave him a quick hug, which he returned.

Once they let go Namine was blushing and Riku looked at his watch and said, "We have approximately 54 seconds to get to class. We have to run!" With that, the two teens ran to their English class, praying that the teacher wouldn't lock them out of class.

* * *

"Thank you come again!" Sora said to his current customer who came to get a copy of his house key that he had lost. The customer nodded and left the building where Sora worked at.

_Mickey' Keys & Antiques_ is a store that opened when Sora moved to Twilight Town. Sora came across it one day when he got lost exploring Twilight Town. He went inside the store and asked for directions and fortunately for him he had asked the manager and owner of the store, Mickey Mouse.

When Mickey had explained to Sora how to get back to his house, Sora was still lost so he called Roxas to pick him up. Since he had time to kill, Sora looked around and saw that not only did they make keys, but they also sold antiques, candy, and movies and made key blades for people to collect and use to fight others in sports. Mickey, noticing the boy's curiosity asked him if anything in the store interested him and Sora said everything.

For some reason, Mickey felt that he could trust this boy and asked him if he was looking for a job. Sora said he was and the next day he was hired. Mickey and the other co-workers taught Sora the ropes of the store and Sora fell in love with the atmosphere of the store. It was calm yet fun. However, today was a rather slow day since most of the customers were High School kids and school started today.

"I'm so bored!" Sora's co-worker Terra said as he got up from his position in the cash register and went to join Sora at his post. Terra was the first co-worker he had met at his job. Terra was very tall with brown hair and a muscular physique. At first, he couldn't stand Sora because of his hyperactivity and bright personality but after a while the two became fast friends. Terra had introduced him to the other two co-workers Aqua, a blue haired girl and Ventus, (Or Ven for short) a blonde haired boy who looked a bit like him and a lot like Roxas.

Ven, Aqua, Terra, and Sora clicked and they were all best friends. Today, Sora was sharing his shift with Terra but tomorrow he had his day off and he was excited about that.

"I'm hungry!" Sora told his friend while Terra took a seat and sweat dropped. "I just saw you eat five waffles, two apples, drink three cups of orange juice, and eat a whole bag of chips and you're still hungry? Poor Kairi! She probably has to eat the crumbs you leave behind at your apartment." Sora pushed his friend and said "But I'm a growing boy and a growing boy needs his food."

"You are 20 years old, I doubt you will grow anymore." Sora tried to give Terra an angry look but he started laughing. Sora could never be angry with anybody, let alone pretend to be angry.

"Why you got to hate me, Terra?" Sora teased Terra and Terra said "Someone has to put you in your place Sora." Terra grinned at Sora and Sora laughed.

"So, Sora. When do I get to meet your sister that you have been talking non-stop about?" Sora looked at Terra and said "Well, maybe I could bring in the weekend you, Ven, and Aqua can meet her since all three of you have the weekend off."

"Is she single?" asked Terra as he raised his eyebrows suggestively and Sora glared at him. "You know she's 16 right? It would be illegal for you to be in a relationship with her. Besides your too old for her!" "Twenty-one is not old Sora! But hey I was just kidding about that. I'm just messing with you!"

Sora rolled his eyes at Terra and laughed at him. Sure Roxas was more overprotective of Namine than him, but he still tried to protect Namine and he knew he didn't want her dating a twenty-one year old, scratch that he didn't want her dating at all.

Sora was about to reply when the familiar bell rang signaling that a few customers had just entered the store. Terra got up from his seat and went back to his post as the cash register. He saw the customers look at him and Sora had to say the greeting that all workers were required to say when a new customer entered the store.

"Welcome to Mickey's Keys & Antiques. Is there anything I can help you with?"

* * *

Riku was right when he said that their English teacher was a psycho. Madam Maleficent was a strict teacher who looked like she would try to kill you if you disobeyed her. She just went through the rules and the conduct she expected in her class and she had already made a seating chart.

Namine was devastated because she wanted to sit with Riku but lady luck was on her side since Riku now sat behind her in English. After finishing her speech about conduct, she let the tardy students in and told them that next time they wouldn't be so lucky and would be locked out for the rest of the period.

Madam Maleficent continued talking for the rest of the period until the bell rang and all the students ran out of class. "She seems…interesting." Namine said to Riku when they walked out of English together. "You think that's interesting? Wait until you meet the rest of the teachers, now that's interesting."

Riku decided to show Namine where the art building was since it was on the way to the gym where he was going to his weight training class. After a few minutes, they had reached the art class. "This is where I'll leave you Namine." He then using Namine's school map showed her where their math class is.

"I'll meet you in math since usually we have to get there early on the first day in order to get the seats we want. I'll save you a seat Nami! Have fun in art!" With that the silver-haired boy waved and walked towards the gym, leaving Namine all by herself in a class where she knew nobody.

Sighing, Namine went inside the classroom and immediately liked the atmosphere of her art class. Paintings, drawings, and sculptures decorated the classroom and instead of having desks in rows like her English class desks were grouped together in groups of six. Riku had told her that the art teacher liked that all of her students helped and worked together and became good friends.

A few of the students that were already in the classroom looked up when they saw her. Namine tried to avoid their gazes and decided to sit in the back since there wasn't anybody there yet. Namine did not like the attention that the students were giving her and was trying her hardest not to look at anybody.

"Hey do you mind if we sit here?"

Namine looked up and saw three girls looking at her. The girls looked older than Namine so she assumed that they must be seniors. Namine shook her head and the three girls broke into grins and sat in the three seats next to Namine.

"Save those seats for Cloud and Leon!" A girl with brown hair that was braided said to a girl with long black hair. The girl nodded and placed her backpack on one seat and a sweater in the other. "There! It's safe!"

The third girl who had blonde hair turned to look at Namine and said "Hiya! Are you new around here? I haven't seen you before." Namine looked down at her lap and nodded. The blonde girl was about to reply when her brown haired companion yelled "Leon! Cloud! Over here! We saved you guys a spot!"

Namine turned and saw two very good-looking guys walk up to the group and sit down. One had spiky blonde hair and blue eyes that reminded Namine a lot of Roxas and the other had brown hair and blue eyes. Namine knew that these guys could hurt you if you messed with them. She saw the blonde haired boy sit next to the black haired girl and the brown haired boy sit next to the girl with the braided brown hair.

After they had taken their seats the bell rang. The teacher introduced herself and told the class about classroom behavior and what she was expecting to do throughout the year. After 10 mins. of talking she told the class they had the rest of the period off to talk since she knew they wouldn't get anything done in the first day of school. Then the class broke into conversation.

"What's your name?"

Namine then looked up and saw the group staring at her, which made her become extremely self-conscious. She noticed that it was the blonde girl who had asked the question and was waiting for a reply. Gathering up whatever courage she had she said "Na-Namine."

"Ooh! Cute name!" The blonde girl said while the black haired girl said, "Don't scare her!" The brown haired girl then looked at Namine and said "Hi Namine. My name is Aerith. The boy next to me is Leon." The black haired girl then said "I'm Tifa! And this is Cloud." Then the blonde haired girl said "And I'm Rikku!"

"There's two Riku's?" Namine blurted out without even thinking yet again and looked down at her lap. Rikku giggled and said, "So you have met the other Riku huh?" Namine nodded and heard the blonde haired boy, Cloud groan.

"Please let's not talk about him. My morning is going great right now." Leon said and Cloud nodded in agreement. "So since you know Riku, you must be a junior right?" Aerith asked and Namine nodded but was still looking down.

Aerith, Tifa, and Rikku looked at each other and found Namine's shy demeanor adorable and wanted to know more about the girl. "Where did you move from, Namine?" "D-Destiny Islands."

"NO WAY! That's so far away!!" Rikku said as she stared at Namine with wide eyes. "That's a faraway move, your parents must be exhausted from all the moving huh?" Tifa said and Namine stiffened. She didn't want to tell them about her parents but she didn't want to lie to them either. She was still really shy but felt that she could trust them just yet. She hadn't even told Riku about her parents so why would she tell these guys about her parents?

Cloud and Leon noticed Namine stiffen and Aerith noticing the younger girl's discomfort quickly said, "You don't have to answer that Namine." So what do you think about Twilight Town?" Namine looked at her and gave her a small smile showing her gratitude for changing the subject.

"Um, it's different. It's better than my old home." Namine said and gave them a sad smile. "Well, we are super glad you like it here! Hollow Bastion High is a pretty chill school, everyone gets along with everybody except two certain seniors and two certain juniors." Rikku said and she nudged Leon who glared at her.

"It's not my fault we can't get along! They always want to beat us up or try and be better than us. It gets annoying." Leon said. Rikku, who saw that Namine was confused, said, "Leon and Cloud can't stand Riku or Seifer. Since you said you know Riku, then I don't have to go into detail on who Seifer is. We aren't sure how the feud started but we get along with the boys just fine, the boys can't get along with each other though."

"Can we just change the subject please?" Cloud snapped while Rikku said "Geez, calm down! Didn't get enough sleep, sleeping beauty?" Aerith, Tifa, and Leon laughed but they also heard Namine giggled which made them happy.

When Rikku mentioned the word parents, nobody could ignore how uncomfortable Namine was about that word. They thought that perhaps Namine had either a bad relationship with her parents or she didn't have any. However, her quiet and shy nature made them want to be friends with her and help her out since she looked so fragile.

Cloud just rolled his eyes at Rikku and asked his male companion, "I still don't know why we took art Leon. It doesn't make sense." Leon smirked at Cloud and said "Remember when we said we wanted easy classes for our last year? Well, art is as easy as it is gonna get. Besides, we all have it the same period so it should be fun. Too bad we can't draw to save our lives though!"

Cloud was about to reply when the bell rang, signaling the end of class and the beginning of the five-minute passing time to go their next class. Namine grabbed her backpack and was about to walk out when she heard Tifa, Aerith, and Rikku yell "Bye Namine!" Namine turned around and said a quiet bye to the seniors and walked towards her math class.

"I like her!" Rikku said while walking besides her group of friends. "She seems sad though but I'm pretty sure our group will cheer her up!" Tifa laughed and Aerith smiled. The boys on the other hand were silently agreeing with Rikku's statement and they all walked to their next class.

* * *

Namine barely made it to math on time and noticed Riku waving at her in the back with an empty seat next to him that was reserved for her. She sat down and noticed that Seifer was sitting in front of Riku and he was talking to three teens that were seated in front of them.

Apparently the math teacher had car troubles so he wasn't going to be in class for the day, which meant that it was a free period. Riku looked at Namine and asked, "So how was art?"

"It was okay. We didn't do anything just talk. Say, do you know who Cloud and Leon are? They are in my art class."

Seifer stopped talking to the people by him and said "Those jerks are in your class?! Man, that really sucks Namine! Oh and for future reference his name isn't Leon, its _Squall_."

Namine looked confused so Riku offered her an explanation.

"His real name is Squall Leonhart and he prefers to be called Leon. It bugs him when we call him Squall so that's what we call him. Cloud and Squall are a bunch of assholes who we get into a lot of fights with. They are the reason why we get in trouble all the time. Although we hate them, we get along with their group of friends."

"So you get along with Aerith, Tifa, and Rikku?"

"Yupp! They are nice unlike, them. Isn't it weird that Rikku and I have the same name but it's spelled differently?" Namine nodded and she heard a voice said "I thought it was weird too, y'know?"

Seifer then said, "When are you going to stop saying y'know, y'know?" Namine then heard the girl sitting in front of Seifer say "Never." Riku laughed and then said to Namine "Nami, I'd like to introduce you to our friends. The big man in front of you is Rai, the girl sitting in front of Seifer is Fuu and the little guy sitting in front of Rai is Vivi. Guys, this is Namine. She's new and really cool so be nice."

Rai had turned around and said "Nice to meet you Namine, y'know?" and Fuu said "Likewise." Namine noticed that Fuu had red eyes as well and was secretly wondering if she was related to Paine. Vivi on the other hand just waved and looked down. Namine could tell that he was a very shy individual so she smiled at him and she could see that he blushed.

After the introductions were made they all started talking about the randomest subjects such as how do they put the jelly inside a donut and if the purple grapes were better than the green grapes. Namine for the first time ever in a school felt like she belonged and it felt great.

Namine was surprisingly having a good first day. She had met some new friends, Riku was in all of her classes and nobody had picked on her. She felt like she was on top of the world!

It wasn't until lunchtime when Namine would realize that her good first day would go down the drain.

* * *

"FINALLY!" Riku yelled after their science class had ended. Riku was full of energy at the moment since he had taken a lovely nap after he realized the teacher would not stop talking all period. Namine, on the other hand had doodled instead of taking notes but if she heard something important, she would write it down.

Seifer told Riku and Namine to meet him at his locker since he had to get his lunch in his locker. Plus, they could show Namine her locker since it was near Seifer's. Namine told Riku that she had to go the restroom and Riku showed her how to get to the locker and told her to meet them there afterwards.

After Namine finished using the restroom she walked out and went towards the lockers. She spotted Riku and Seifer but by the way they looked, they weren't too happy. As she neared them she finally realized why they weren't happy.

Leon and Cloud were there with them and they looked pretty angry as well.

What was also bad was that no one was around, it seemed that everybody was in the cafeteria now.

She wasn't sure what they were saying to each other but if looks could kill, all of the boys would be dead. As she got closer she noticed Cloud push Seifer and Riku push Leon and it looked as if they were about to fight one another.

Namine didn't know what to do, she didn't want to run away though so she decided to try and intervene and hopefully they wouldn't fight.

Bad idea.

Once Namine had reached the boys their yelling had escalated and she wasn't sure who but someone was about to throw the first punch but she heard an angry voice yell "ENOUGH."

All five teens turned and saw a very angry teacher (who Namine hadn't met before). "It isn't what it looks like?" Seifer tried to explain but the teacher wouldn't have any of that.

"ALL FIVE OF YOU TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE NOW!"

That was when the boys noticed that Namine had been by their side. The teacher thought that Namine was part of the fight as well! "But, she didn't do anything!" Riku said trying to protect Namine and make sure that she didn't get in any trouble.

"I don't care if she was part of the fight or not! You five are in so much trouble!"

_Oh Dear._

_

* * *

_

"Well, that was fun." Riku said once they left the principal's office. The fivesome had to wait in the main office because the principal would talk to the students one by one to see what had happened. While Seifer was flirting with Paine, Riku had tried to comfort Namine since this was her first time ever getting into trouble.

Namine knew that she shouldn't have let her guard down. She was having a good first day and knew that it was too good to be true. It seemed that the boys defended her though and told principal Yen Sid that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and since she was a new student the principal did go easy on her.

"At least you didn't have to hear him yell, Namine, he went easy on you. You think you'd get used to all the yelling after 2 years but nooo. I'm pretty sure we will make him permanently lose his voice by this time next year. You are lucky that you only got a week's worth of detention." Seifer said

Although the principal did go easy on Namine, he still gave her a punishment. Starting today, Namine along with Seifer, Riku, Cloud, and Leon (who received three weeks of detention) would have to stay after school for an hour in detention.

"Honestly, Namine detention isn't half that bad! Cid is the one in charge of detention and he's pretty chill. One time he let us order a pizza since we were extremely bored. Don't worry about it, I'm pretty sure your brothers have had detention before, so you're not alone on that."

Namine stopped walking and started to panic. Sora definitely spent most of his afternoons in detention and Namine remembered the scolding that Sora would receive whenever he landed in detention. It wasn't pretty to say the least.

She wondered how Roxas would take it when he found out that she had gotten detention on the first day of school.

Hopefully he will take it well.

_At least I hope he does._

_

* * *

_

A/N: I'm sorry for the delay! I made this chapter extra long and I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for the reviews and I want to thank Badhraa for the review and for the concern Badhraa had over my friend's death. I appreciate it.

Until next time!

Thank You! :D


	5. Fun In Detention

**New Beginnings**

AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?

A/N: Hey everybody! Thank you so much for the reviews! I appreciate them a lot and it motivates me to write even more and better to make sure that none of you are disappointed. I'm sorry about the delay! I've been stressing out over tests and graduation and my senior ball. It's intense but I'm glad that I graduate high school in 2 months! Woo! I will reply to reviews at the end of this chapter! Thank you so much for your support! Once again I'm extremely sorry for the delay! Don't think that I abandoned this story!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Fun In Detention**

Since Namine, Riku, and Seifer, spent the rest of lunch and the majority of History in the Principal's office, they were given a pass to go to the last class of the day, which was Study Hall. Cloud and Leon had left earlier than them and were probably on their way to the their last class of the day as well. Before the trio went to the class however, they decided to stop by the vending machine to get some food since none of them had eaten and they were starving. They were going to eat it in Study Hall since Riku said that not only was the teacher in charge of study hall but detention as well and he was a pretty laid back type of guy.

"We might see Squall and Cloud there since Study Hall's are usually mixed classes. We will probably just sit in the back or something. Maybe Fuu, Rai and Vivi have study hall this period. I forgot to check their schedules." Seifer said as he took a sip of his soda that he had gotten.

Once they had arrived they noticed that their Study Hall class didn't have as many students as most classes. Namine did notice that Leon and Cloud where there but also Aerith, Tifa, Rikku, Fuu, Rai, Vivi and two other guys that she had never met but they were seated near the other three juniors in the class and seemed to be laughing over something. Upon noticing their arrival, Aerith, Tifa, and Rikku waved at Namine and she smiled at them back.

Namine then looked at their Study Hall teacher and did a double take. This man did not look like he would be a teacher. He smelt slightly of smoke and ciggarettes and wore goggles on his head. He was wearing a white T-shirt with blue pants and was currently staring into space. When he heard the door open however he looked at the three kids and smiled. He lazily got up from his chair and walked towards them.

"Well, so nice of you to joins us." The teacher said as he looked at the trio. "Already making my life miserable?" Riku and Seifer laughed and rolled their eyes at the teacher. "Welcome back Riku, Seifer." He then noticed a small blonde who was beside them. "You must be the new student!" He grabbed his roster and looked at the unfamiliar name that he didn't know and said "Namine Heart correct?" Namine looked up at the teacher and then back down and nodded. "Well, Namine my name is Mr. Highwind but you can just call me by my first name Cid. I prefer that much better than Highwind." Namine looked at him funny since she had never met a teacher who wanted to be called by their first name.

"Geez, don't scare her Cid!" Riku said and Cid just smirked. "Now that you three have finally arrived find a seat and pretend to be working on something. I really don't feel like failing anybody." Cid said and he walked back to his desk and sat down.

Riku lead Namine and Seifer to where they're other friends were seated and told them what had gone down during lunch. While talking to them they pulled out the snacks that they had bought and were eating them. "That's not fair that Namine got detention when she didn't even do anything, y'know!" Rai said while Vivi nodded and Fuu said, "I agree."

"Speaking of detention" Riku stated after he finished munching on a chip and turned to look at Namine "Aren't you going to call your wonderful brother and tell him the 'great' news?" Namine still hadn't called Roxas yet about her getting detention. She was afraid of what he would do to her. But she knew that the more she waited the worse it would get so it was better to call him now than after school where he would have to wait an hour until she got out. "I'll call him right now." Namine said and Seifer said "Good luck!"

"Don't worry about trying to hide your cellphone. Cid is cool with cellphone use, just don't use it too much." Riku said once he noticed that Namine was trying to take out her cell phone from her backpack but making sure Cid wouldn't see it. Namine slowly dialed her brother's cell phone and heard it ring a few times and she hoped he wouldn't answer it.

Too bad he did hear it and a few seconds later he answered.

"Namine?"

"He-y R-Roxas, how's i-it going?"

Namine silently cursed herself for stuttering because of her nervousness. Hopefully he wouldn't yell at her after she tells him about detention.

"Namine, is everything alright? You are still in school right? Did something bad happen?!"

"Well, w-what is your definition of bad?"

"What happened?"

Namine winced on the phone, she was hearing _the voice_. It was that same voice that had made Sora and herself spill everything that they had done bad. Like for example, one time when Namine was twelve, she had bought a pet goldfish and named it Fish. Sora, who was sixteen at the time wanted to see if fish could fly because he had made a bet with the neighbor Lilo and so he took Fish and threw it out at the window. Unfortunately for him, he lost the bet since Fish couldn't fly and was never seen again.

When Namine came home she noticed that Fish was missing and asked Roxas and Sora if they had seen him. Roxas said he hadn't but poor Sora stuttered while trying to lie his way out of this one. Roxas turned on him and used _the voice_ to get it out of him. It took 30 seconds to make Sora crack. Once Sora admitted his crime, Roxas yelled at Sora and made him go to the nearest pet store and use his saved up money to buy Namine a new fish.

Although it was fun to watch at times Sora getting yelled at by Roxas, she never wanted to be in Sora's position and it seemed that that is where she was destined to be today. She decided to just it get it over with and maybe he will go easy on her since she wouldn't stall like Sora used to.

"You see, I got detention this whole week and it starts today after school."

There it was out in the open.

"But it wasn't my fault! See, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time! I was just walking to my locker when-n a fight broke out! The teacher didn't even give me-e time to explain!"

Silence.

That was all Namine heard through the other line and when Roxas was silent that was never good.

"Are you still in class?"

"Y-yeah! But Riku said that t-the teacher d-doesn' mind if you talk in this class."

"What time will you get off of detention?"

"W-well at around four?"

"I'll pick you up then. You are in big trouble Namine."

And then the line went dead. 'That went well' Namine thought sarcastically and put away her phone. She looked at the clock and noticed that they had a half hour left of Study Hall.

"So how did it go?" Namine looked and saw Riku was staring at her with concern in his eyes. Namine blushed and said, "I'm not really sure." Riku was about to reply when he was hit in the head with a paper ball. Riku turned to see who had thrown it and it was the two teens that Namine had no idea who they were.

One had dirty blonde hair and the other had red-orange hair. They both looked muscular although the red-oranged hair boy was bigger than the dirty blonde one.

"Riku! We haven't seen you all summer? How have you been man? And who's the lovely lady that you are trying to hide from us?" Asked the dirty blonde haired boy and Namine quickly ducked her head in hopes of trying to not to be noticed.

"Hey, Tidus, Wakka. I've been good. Tidus, you shouldn't be hitting on girls when you yourself have a girlfriend." The dirty blonde haired boy who Namine presumed must be Tidus said, "I'm not hitting on her, I'm just asking you why you are trying to hide such a beauty."

Riku rolled his eyes and then said "Tidus, Wakka this is Namine. Namine, these two idiots right here are Wakka and Tidus. They are in our year and are complete morons so watch out for them."

"Hey! I am not a moron. If I was a moron Yuna wouldn't be dating me." Tidus said while Wakka replied with "I still don't know what she sees in you man. Maybe it's your money." Wakka received a playful glare from Tidus, which made Seifer who was hearing their conversation laugh.

Tidus and Wakka were known as the class clowns. Both of them were best friends and one wasn't seen without the other unless Tidus was with his girlfriend Yuna. The two have been dating for about a year and although they are both very close Yuna goes to an all girls private school so they mostly hang out in the weekends or after school since Yuna is always doing extra curricular activities in her school.

"So word on the street is you guys got detention along with Leon and Cloud. Luckily for you guys you won't be alone since Wakka and I will be joining you." Tidus said and Seifer replied with "No way! What you guys do?"

Wakka leaned back on his seat and said "We came extremely late to English and of course you know how Maleficent gets when you arrive half an hour late to her class and keep banging on her door to let you in. Plus, we were caught ditching History fifth period. We have two and a half weeks worth of detention."

"I find it quite ironic that almost all of the blitzball team will be serving detention in the upcoming weeks." Another voice said and the teens turned around and saw that Cid was right behind them holding his clipboard. "You have a blitzball team in this school?" Namine asked and she quickly blushed, she hadn't meant to say that out loud!

Tidus laughed and said, "Of course we do! We were undefeated last year! We are the best of the best! Me, Wakka, Seifer, Riku, Leon, Cloud, and Rai are on the team. As you can tell, everyone except Rai is a troublemaker. But of course without me, the team would fail."

"Ignore Tidus. He eats, lives, and breathes blitzball, it's pretty much all he talks about nonstop unless you mention his girlfriend Yuna." Tidus glared at Seifer and stuck his tongue out. "Oh how mature." Cid said to Tidus and hit him on the head with his clipboard. "Hey! That's child abuse! I need an adult!"

Riku rolled his eyes at Tidus and said "You definitely have to check out our games Namine-" He was cut off when he heard Seifer said "You just want her to come so you can have your own personal cheerleader huh, Riku?" Seifer laughed when he noticed a very slight tinge of pink on Riku's cheeks but you could only see it if you looked hard enough.

"Don't worry Seifer, I'll cheer for you too." Namine said and then giggled. She did blush when Seifer said that cheerleading comment but she didn't know what to say and this was the first thing that popped into her mind.

Seifer was about to reply when the bell rang, signaling the end of the day for all of the students except the lucky few who were going to serve detention. Fuu, Vivi, and Rai said goodbye to them and Aerith, Rikku, and Tifa grabbed their belongings and left.

The door then closed and everyone who was still in the room could hear the laughter and yells of happy students leaving and going home, away from the institution known as school.

Detention has begun.

Namine looked at the clock and prayed that maybe time would stop so that way she wouldn't have to face Roxas. She was a bit scared of facing him and a bit scared of having detention since this was her first detention after all.

Cid who was still talking with Tidus said, "Well then kids, how about we order a pizza? You guys are paying though since you are the reason why I'm stuck here for another hour." Everyone cheered and Namine sweatdropped. This is how detention was like?

She expected Cid to make them all be quiet and do their homework, not asking the kids to order a pizza!

No wonder Sora and Axel spent most of their high school career in detention!

"Now, what kind of toppings for pizza do you guys want?"

"PEPPERONI!"

"SAUSAGE!"

"EXTRA CHEESE!"

"I'm fine with whatever."

"I agree with Cloud."

"Same here. However maybe some extra pepperoni will be fine."

"PEANUT BUTTER CUPS!"

Everyone stared at Tidus funny and he said "What? Haven't you guys tried pizza with peanut butter cups? Chocolate is good on everything my friends."

"O..k.. then. So we are getting an extra large pizza with extra pepperoni, extra cheese, sausage and peanut butter cups then? " They all nodded and Cid grabbed the phone to order the pizza.

"See Namine" Riku said, "Detention isn't too bad with Cid. It's pretty awesome."

It was only going to get funnier.

* * *

Roxas, Axel, Demyx and Luxord were currently in the boy's locker room changing since their shift had just ended. Roxas was telling them about Namine receiving detention.

"Don't be too hard on her Rox. Like she told you she was at the wrong place at the wrong time and I know Nami never lies. She's probably freaking out right now because she believes you will yell at her." Axel said. He was secretly happy that Namine had gotten detention because in his opinion, detention was when all the exciting things happened so he was hoping that Namine was having a fun time there.

"I'm not going to yell at her, I just think that she shouldn't have gotten detention. I mean first it's detention, then it's the drugs and alcohol, and then she will drop out of high school and have 3 kids with different guys and then she will live all by herself in a box next to the freeway."

"Wow dude! You just described my mom's life!" Demyx said and Luxord smacked him on the head. "Aren't you exaggerating a bit, Roxas?" Luxord asked and Axel said, "That's how he gets whenever something bad happens to Nami or Sora." Luxord and Demyx snickered and Roxas said "It's not funny you guys!"

"What isn't funny? The fact that you are a good for nothing?"

Four heads turned and saw that Marluxia, Xaldin, and Saix laughing at them. "Look whose talking _Marly_." Luxord said knowing that the little 'pet name' they had for him bugged the pink-haired man. Marluxia scowled at Axel but his scowl soon turned into a smirk as he said, "So Roxas, how's your sister doing?"

"Watch it Marly." Axel snarled as he noticed his best friend was trying to keep his anger in check. "I'm only asking how she is doing. It's an innocent question. Last time I saw her she looked scared."

"That's because your face scared her dumbass. It scares everyone." Demyx said. He wasn't going to let this prick get Roxas riled up because that is what he wanted. Marluxia ignored Demyx and noticed Roxas tense up and said, "You know Roxas, you really should calm down. You need some relaxation time. Perhaps you should leave your sister at my house and I can show her around. I'll show her places she's never seen or been in before if you know what I mean." Xaldin and Saix laughed as they realized that their friend was trying to anger Roxas and make him snap.

It had worked.

Roxas immediately lunged at Marluxia but before reaching him Axel had grabbed him and was struggling to keep Roxas from tackling Marluxia. "My, my, my Roxas! You need to control that temper of yours. I don't feel safe working around a guy who might try and harm others." Xaldin said as he shared a knowing glance at Marluxia. "Are you sure you are sane Roxas? Clearly you have some sort of mental issue if you want to attack someone who just wants to show your sister around." Saix said.

"That's enough! Roxas, let's not waste our time with these assholes and let's leave." Axel said and he nodded at Luxord and Demyx and dragged a struggling Roxas to the parking lot.

Once outside, Axel had let go of Roxas who was pacing back and forth trying to calm down. Axel knew that when you rattled Roxas's cage you had to give him some space in order for him to calm down unless you wanted to be killed by his wrath, so he let his friend calm down.

A few minutes later, Axel saw that Roxas wasn't as agitated as before so he said, "Just ignore them Roxas. They want to get under your skin and if you let them do that, you pretty much let them win." Roxas sighed and said, "I know, I know. I just hate it that he's bringing Namine into this when she didn't do anything. He knows that bugs me and I know he's going to use it against me."

Axel nodded in understanding and said, "Yeah, but you just have to ignore him, but if it does get too far we can definitely kick his ass." Axel then walked up to his best friend and said "Besides, we can easily take care of them later since we always get him back. We can get them back with one of our infamous pranks, eh?"

Roxas laughed and said "Most definitely. We should prank him tomorrow before he shows up." Axel grinned, "There's the Roxas I know! So, anything in mind for dear old Marly?"

"Well, I'll tell you about it later tonight, I have to go pick up Nami from school. Did you call the gang?"

"Already did. They are probably at our apartment right now decorating or stealing our stuff. Namine won't know what hit her!"

Roxas laughed and said, "Good thing Namine doesn't know about the surprise party we are throwing her for her first day surviving a new school." Axel agreed and said "I'll see you at the apartment!"

With that the two best friends parted ways in their own cars.

* * *

"Dude, you're trippin'! Obviously Mario is way better than Sonic. Mario is a classic an original! How can you compare the greatness that is Mario to Sonic?"

"Mario is just an Italian plumber who always has to save a princess from the save villain over and over again. That story line gets boring! At least in Sonic games the story changes and it makes it much more interesting."

"Sonic is just a hedgehog! What's so great about a hedgehog? A blue hedgehog for that matter. Have you ever met an Italian plumber? I don't think so!"

"Well, have you ever seen a blue hedgehog?"

"Touché. Well, whatever Wakka, Sonic games are for babies. Only real, strong, and awesome guys like me prefer Mario."

"Psh, you awesome and strong? Yeah, when pigs fly."

"Shut up Seifer! You weren't even part of this conversation!"

"Well, I was eavesdropping chickenwuss. Just like how you and Wakka eavesdrop on mine and Riku's conversations all the time."

Tidus groaned and then turned around and said "Hey Riku! Back me up here, isn't it true that only real men prefer Mario?"

Wakka snorted at Tidus and before Riku was able to reply he said, "You're asking Riku? Please! Riku isn't a real man, look at his hair! His hair is quite feminine alright!"

Riku glared at Wakka and said, "You are just jealous of my hair. It's all-natural unlike yours and besides, the ladies love it. Isn't that right Namine?" He winked at the blonde girl and she blushed which earned a laugh from Riku.

Namine smirked and then said, "I don't know if the ladies love it. I think they would be more jealous than admiring it. It doesn't look too real either, are you sure it's not a wig?" Tidus, Wakka, and Seifer burst out laughing and Riku smiled.

Detention was going to end in about two minutes and Namine had to admit that she had fun. Once they had ordered the pizza and it had been delivered it was agreed that Wakka was going to pay for the pizza. The boys wouldn't let Namine pay for it so after a thumb wrestling match, Wakka was the loser in all the rounds so he was forced to pay.

Tidus had forced Namine to eat her pizza with the peanut butter cups (because she wanted to pick them off and eat them later) but when she tried she had to admit…it wasn't that bad. Only Wakka, Tidus and Namine had eaten their pizzas with the peanut butter cups, everyone else "Didn't have the balls" as Wakka put it.

After eating, the pizza she heard Seifer, Riku, Tidus, and Wakka talk about sports and since Namine wasn't a sports expert she plucked up her courage and decided to go over to Cloud and Leon who welcomed her and they were telling her about what it was like living in Twilight Town.

Namine had gotten to know Leon and Cloud a bit better while they talked. Cloud and Leon may look cold and stoic but they were really great people. She could tell that they really cared about their friends and kept to themselves. She got good vibes from them so she was hoping they wouldn't stop talking to her and ignore her like some people did back in her old school.

What took her by surprise was the fact that Cloud and Leon knew who her brother's were. When they heard her last name being called in Cid's class they looked at her closely and realized that she did resemble the twin brothers a lot.

Apparently, Leon and Cloud were regular customers at Organization XIII and either Roxas or Axel would help them out since they trusted them the most. When Fenrir, Cloud's motorcycle crashed one time when he was racing with Leon, Roxas and Axel put the motorcycle back in tip top shape in no time.

They had met Sora through Rikku who dragged them one time to Mickey's Keys and Antiques to find a birthday present for Tifa. Sora had introduced himself and it shocked them to see that he looked a lot like Roxas. A few days later they went back to Organization XIII and asked Roxas if he had a brother and Roxas told them about Sora.

Of course once noticing that Namine was talking to Cloud and Leon, Riku and Seifer were throwing spitballs at the two seniors who were giving them death glares. Riku was glaring even more fiercely at them for some reason. Although Cloud and Leon were getting along with Namine it didn't necessarily mean that they had to get along with Riku and Seifer.

Seifer, Tidus, and Wakka noticed Riku's demeanour change when he heard Namine laugh at what Cloud or Leon had said. They secretly smiled since they knew why Riku was acting that way. Without him knowing, they placed bets to see how long Riku could stand it before going over to Namine and bringing her back to their group.

A few minutes later Riku came up to Namine and took her back to his group. While Riku went to get Namine, Wakka grinned and stretched out his hand to collect the money that he had just won. Seifer and Tidus gave him the money but made sure to tell him that this wouldn't be the last they'd be making about Riku and Namine.

When Namine and Riku came back they were hearing the debate between Wakka and Tidus about who was better: Mario or Sonic. Wakka and Tidus would usually start random debates at the most random times.

"Yeah Riku, if that is your natural hair then what is your secret?" Wakka said and Riku replied with "If I told you, then it wouldn't be a secret. I don't want people knowing about the fountain of great hair."

"Are you sure you don't mean the fountain of a big ego."

Namine and Seifer laughed. Cid who was currently napping in his chair woke up with a start and looked up at the clock. "Congratulations, you have successfully lived through your first day of school and detention. Now get out of my sight and I'll see you guys tomorrow. I'm thinking about getting some Chinese food for tomorrow's detention."

Everybody got up and walked out of the classroom and to the parking lot before going their separate ways. Cloud and Leon had driven to school and they had asked Namine if she needed a ride but she politely declined since Roxas was waiting for her. She waved good-bye to them (they waved back at her, Tidus, and Wakka but glared at Riku and Seifer) and then she walked with Riku, Seifer, Tidus, and Wakka to the front.

"You guys walking home right?" Tidus asked Riku and Seifer who nodded. "I think we will walk with you until we reach the bus stop since we will be going to visit Yuna." Wakka snorted and said "You just saw her yesterday and you already miss her?" "I need my Yuna fill for the day!" "I'm only going with you because in Yuna's school there are a lot of good looking girls for the Wakka man here."

Everybody laughed at Wakka and then jumped when they heard a car honk at them. They all turned and Namine realized that it was Roxas who looked…a bit mad at the boys.

A bit was an understatement.

"Well, that's my ride. I'll see you guys tomorrow!" Riku, Seifer, Tidus, and Wakka waved at her and Namine quickly went to the waiting car and went inside. The boys watched the car drive away and Seifer, Tidus, and Wakka all stared at Riku.

"What are you guys staring at?"

"Looks like Mr. Perfect Hair has a thing for the new girl." Tidus teased and Wakka said "It's pretty obvious man, I mean did you see your face when you saw her talking to Cloud and Leon? I sensed some jealousy there."

"I was not jealous of them! I was staring at them like that because I do not like Cloud and Leon. Seifer and I always stare at them like that."

"We give them glares alright but yours was screaming jealousy man."

"I was not jealous!"

"Keep telling yourself that Riku. I don't think the color green suits you." Seifer said and he received a punch from his best friend. "Easy there pal! We are just playing with you."

Riku rolled his eyes at his friends. "I really don't know why I bother to hang out with you guys."

"Because we are awesome!"

"Right…"

"She seems like a nice girl though. A bit shy but with some spunk!" Tidus said and Wakka nodded agreeing with him. The foursome then realized that they were in front of the bus stop and a few students from their school were waiting there since this particular bus would come later than the rest.

"Well anyway, here is the bus stop. So we'll see you guys tomorrow!" Wakka said and he and Tidus waved at the other two boys and went up to another group of people and started talking to them.

"So Riku, I wonder what your dad will say when he finds out that you got detention on the first day. Doesn't he leave his work early on the first day of school to interrogate you?"

The silver-haired boy groaned as he remembered that his father always did that too him. Riku lived with his father and older brother and both of them were very successful. His mother had abandoned the family when Riku was five so frankly, he didn't care about her. His older brother Sephiroth was 22 and was studying to become a lawyer. He was his school's valedictorian and graduated with top marks. His father founded his very own business, which he now co-owned with his best friend.

Riku's father expected him to be as successful as he and as smart as Sephiroth but Riku didn't want that. He was a free spirit and wasn't sure what he wanted to be yet and he just wanted to enjoy life. Although his father did tolerate his younger son's behavior, he really wanted what he thought was best for Riku and that is why he sometimes pushed Riku a lot into studying and going to a prestigious college.

"He will probably just tell me to behave next time or make me work at his job again as punishment."

Whenever Riku or Sephiroth (mostly Riku) did something wrong, their father would punish them by making them run errands back and forth for his company without any pay or breaks. He never met any of the workers there since when he ran errands he only spent at least a minute at the shop. Although it was a bit grueling at times it did have some high points.

"I can handle my dad, no worries Seifer. I just don't want to deal with Sephiroth at the moment. He's not going to let me forget that I got detention on the first day of school."

Sephiroth and Riku both had a love and hate relationship. When they get along, they make a great team and are always on each other's side. It was during those times when Riku would cherish his brother the most. However those were very rare occasions.

Both of them (Sephiroth more than Riku) had an intense sibling rivalry and would do anything to bring the other down. Sephiroth wanted to prove that he was the better sibling and better son which is what made him work extra hard at school a lot of the time. Although Sephiroth was book smart and highly regarded for his academic success, Riku was better at sports than Sephiroth which irritated the elder brother to no end since he wanted to be better at everything.

"Yeah your brother is a pain in the ass. If you can handle your dad, you can definitely handle dear old Sephi."

Riku nodded and smiled at his best friend showing his gratitude. "How about we get some sea salt ice cream before I head off and meet my doom?" Seifer snorted and said "I swear one day you will die of sea salt overdose or something."

Both of the teens laughed as they headed towards the ice cream shop to get their favorite treat.

* * *

The car ride was quiet, too quiet in Namine's opinion.

When Namine got inside the car she noticed two things. One, her brother had turned off the radio which was why it was eerily quiet in the car and two, Roxas was deep in thought glaring at the road ahead of him.

She had seen her brother's obvious glare at the boys but it had intensified upon noticing that she wasn't only hanging out with two but four boys.

Her brother was too overprotective at times.

She wanted to say something but was scared of what her brother might do. She knew he was upset that she got detention but it wasn't her fault. She decided to wait until they got home and explain the whole situation to her brother who would hopefully show mercy on her and wouldn't be mad anymore.

After driving for a few minutes, Roxas finally parked the car and Namine realized that they had reached the apartment complex. She also noticed that Roxas had already gotten out of the car and was waiting for her. She quickly bolted out of the car and went up to her brother and the two blondes walked to their door. Roxas opened the door and went inside first since the apartment was dark.

Why wasn't Axel home yet?

Once she entered the home she jumped when the lights turned on and she saw 5 people jump out from their hiding spots and yelling "SURPRISE!" The redhead that Namine was asking about came up to her and hugged her.

"Congratulations Nami! You survived your first day of your new high school!"

The apartment was decorated with balloons and some snacks were set on the table along with some soda pop. A large pizza box was placed in the middle of the table and a small chocolate cake was there as well.

It was a surprise party for Namine!

After pulling away from Axel's hug Namine looked around and saw the faces of Sora, Kairi, Axel, Larxene and Olette. She had met Larxene and Olette when Roxas and Axel brought them to visit her at Destiny Islands and the three girls clicked. They had their own unique flare along with Kairi and she was glad that her brothers and Axel had fallen for such sweet girls.

However, sometimes Namine did feel left out.

She was happy that they had each found someone but she had yet to find her own guy. Sometimes she felt awkward if all of them hung out since she had no one to hug or anything. She sucked it up though and let them enjoy their happiness.

"NAMINE!"

Namine saw a girl with brown hair go up to her and hug her as well. It was Olette, who had been dating her brother Roxas for two years. Roxas told her that they had met when he first started Twilight University and she would tutor him with his hard classes. Eventually the two were set up on a blind date together by Olette's friend Hayner and they have been happily together ever since.

Everyone took turns hugging Namine and once everyone finished the redhead girl said "So Nami, tell us about your first day! Did you make any new friends?" Namine was about to reply when Roxas said, "She met some interesting characters alright."

Namine glared at her brother and rolled her eyes at his overprotective nature. He had no right to judge the people that she was hanging out with just because she had met them in detention. Namine looked at Kairi and said, "What Roxas means, is that yes I did make a few friends and they were really nice! You just glared at them because they were the boys I met in detention!"

"No way! You got detention Nami!" Kairi said and immediately Axel and Sora grinned. "Welcome to the detention club!" Roxas glared at his brother and friend who just brushed him off and then Axel said, "Roxas doesn't understand the beauty that is detention. I had the greatest times there, I learned a lot from the guys there and met a few close friends there." Sora nodded and said "Yeah, like I remember one time I played goldfish with a few guys in detention and I won $200. Pretty cool huh?"

Namine laughed and said, "I thought detention would be bad but it was okay. I talked with a lot of people in detention." "Like who?" Olette asked as she saw that the blonde was blushing. "Well, I met the whole blitzball team."

Then she heard a squeal coming from Kairi.

"The blitzball team? Aren't they all boys?" Namine nodded and she saw Axel and Roxas tense up. "They were nice though and funny!" Namine said trying to defend the guys she had met in detention.

"Boys, eh? Do tell." Larxene said as she smirked at Roxas who glared at her in return. Namine began retelling her misadventures in school and in detention. She decided to let a few details out such as that she and Riku had every single class together. She didn't need Kairi to squeal with delight again and Roxas, Axel, and Sora to visualize punching the poor silver haired boy.

"Aw, sounds like you had fun! Looks like Namine is little miss popular with the boys at her school now." Kairi teased while Namine playfully swatted her friend. Olette and Larxene laughed when they noticed the boys glare at Kairi after her statement.

"Anyway" Sora started "How about we just start eating? I'm starving! The last time I ate was about an hour ago." Roxas rolled his eyes at his twin and said, "Is that all you can think about? Food?" Sora replied, "Well, I also think about Kairi!" The redhead girl smiled and hugged her boyfriend who laughed.

Everyone was walking towards the food but Namine felt someone grab her wrist and looked up to see her brother looking at her. She knew that right then and there was the time to talk about her detention with Roxas.

When they noticed that Roxas and Namine weren't following them they looked at them with question filled eyes. Sora saw the look that Roxas was giving their young sister and he gulped. He knew that look and he knew that Roxas was going to question her about getting detention and how her day had gone really.

"Excuse us for a few minutes." Roxas said as he dragged Namine to his room and he closed the door. Namine had never been in Roxas's room ever since moving in and she looked around the room and saw that it was very messy with clothes sprawled everywhere, his video games lying on the floor, a sock on top of the computer monitor and she noticed some green stuff on the corner that might have been a sandwich.

She was afraid to ask what it really was.

Namine found some room in his bed and sat down and Roxas sat down on his computer chair. Roxas stared at her and then Namine just let everything slip. She could never hide anything from Roxas, nobody could.

She even told him about Riku being in every single one of her classes.

Once she had finished she looked at her older brother and saw that he was quiet, very quiet. She wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. "Roxas?" She asked and then he looked at her.

"Although I am upset that you got detention I'm glad that you had a good day." Namine's jaw dropped. She was expecting Roxas to tell her to get away from Riku and Seifer or hire a bodyguard for her but definetly not that.

Roxas, upon noticing his younger sister's expression said, "Let me explain. I was extremely worried about you starting this new school because I did not want it to be like how it was before. I was worried that you might get picked on or gotten along with the wrong crowd. But, you didn't and I can see that you are slowly coming out of your shell and that's good. I'm proud of you Nami."

Namine smiled at her big brother and got up to give him a hug, which he returned.

"That's really sweet Roxas. That means a lot to me."

The two siblings then let go of each other and Roxas said, "However, the next time you get detention there will be consequences. I'm giving you a freebie this time." Namine giggled and said, "Sora won't be happy that you didn't punish me for getting a detention. He will probably say it's not fair." Roxas shrugged and said, "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

Both the siblings laughed and then Namine said, "Well, what are we standing around here for? Let's get some food before our dear brother eats it all!" The two blondes then left the room and went to join the small party that was going in full swing.

* * *

"I'm Home!"

Riku had just arrived at his house and put down his backpack near the door. He then loosened his school tie and was walking towards the kitchen when he saw a figure looking through the fridge.

"Hey Sephiroth."

The figure closed the fridge and stared at Riku. "I didn't know that Sephiroth and I looked a lot alike." It said and Riku mentally slapped himself. He had just confused his father with his older brother.

"Sorry dad. From afar you did look a lot like Sephiroth."

Riku's father just smirked and said "Don't worry about it, so how was school?"

Riku smiled and said "Surprisingly, it was a good day today. I met a new friend." Riku decided to start off with the good news before telling his father about his detention. His father raised his eyebrows in curiosity and said, "Do tell."

"Her name is Namine and she just moved here from Destiny Islands. Well, technically I met her before school started. I think she lives with her older brother, I'm not really sure though." That was true, Namine hadn't told him if she lived with her parents or not. In fact, she never mentioned anything about her parents. He made a mental note to ask her about that later once they had gotten to know one another really well.

"That's good, I suppose. Anything else happen?"

"I got detention."

Riku's father stared at him and said, "I had a feeling that was going to happen but I didn't expect it to happen on the first day."

"Dad it wasn't my faul-

"I don't care whose fault it was. You know what happens when you get detention correct? I expect you to come work at my company next week. No buts. You will be helping out two of the guys with giving a paint job to a car. Understood?"

Riku knew he couldn't defy his dad, although he was a nice and caring man if you crossed him he wouldn't care if you were his son or not and try to kill you with his anger. However, he did not want to work with his father's co-workers since he didn't know how they would be like.

"Yes Dad."

Riku's father was about to reply when his cell phone started vibrating, the cell phone he uses for his company and he answered it.

"Xemnas speaking."

His father quickly waved at his son and walked towards his office to talk to whoever had just called him. Not that many people knew about this but Riku's father owned the famous car repair shop Organization XIII.

Xemnas earned a lot of money from it, which made his family incredibly rich. Riku didn't like showing off that he was rich because he wanted others to treat him the same way they treat each other so he never mentioned anything about his dad. The only person who knew about Riku being rich was Seifer his best friend who still treated him the same after discovering the truth. Seifer was cool with it and he promised he wouldn't tell any of their other friends, which made Riku grateful to have a best friend like him.

He also didn't want people to be his friends just because of his money. He was fine with being treated normal and not different at all. He had a feeling that a certain blonde haired girl would find out about his secret soon.

There was something about Namine that was so pure and good. She had an aura around her that made you trust her and because of how fragile she looked, made you want to protect her. For some reason, he knew that she would never hurt him.

Riku was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a low growl coming from…his stomach. Riku laughed and said "Time for some food! I wonder if there is any cereal left."

With that the youngest son of Xemnas went to the fridge to eat some food.

* * *

A/N: Bet you guys didn't expect Riku's dad to be the owner of Organization XIII huh? I wonder how Roxas and Axel will react when they find out about Riku's dad. Once again I'm so sorry about the delayed update but I've been extremely busy. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

Thank You! :D


	6. Oh Brother!

**New Beginnings**

AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?

A/N: Hey everybody! I hope everybody enjoys this chapter and I'm sorry for late updates! I finally graduated High School though! Yipee! I've just been extremely busy. I'll be gone a few times throughout the summer but when I'm not gone or at work, I'll definitely update, and I'm not going to abandon this story for nothing! I'm bringing a few Final Fantasy characters in here although I've never really played the game before, I want to try it! I did some research on them though!

Here is chapter 6!

**Chapter 6: Oh Brother!**

* * *

A week and a half had gone by and Namine had to admit, school wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. She had met some new friends, had some insane teachers, and nobody had picked on her, which was a new experience for the blonde. She was really starting to like Twilight Town, especially all her new friends.

Over the week, she had gotten to know them a lot better. With Rai, he would always joke around in class and he made everybody laugh. Vivi, who although was shy would play humorous jokes on people that didn't hurt them. Once he switched everybody's notebooks in math class and Namine still wasn't sure how he did that without anybody noticing. He was quite a character. Fuu only spoke with one or two words but she was a very tough girl who would punch the boys if they said something that was out of line. Namine could tell that Fuu was going to become one of her best girl friends in the future.

The second day of school, Namine realized that both Tidus and Wakka were in her lunch period and History class. They were both extremely funny and were always arguing over the most trivial things. She found their antics hilarious and was happy that they all got along in History class.

Then there were the seniors.

Rikku was very bubbly and happy go lucky and she reminded Namine a lot of Sora. Aerith was calm and collected but she was the type of person you would go to if you had any problems. Like Fuu, Tifa was a headstrong girl who did not let anybody walk all over her. Cloud and Leon on the other hand, were very cold and stoic to a lot of people but to their friends they were funny and sarcastic and they had taken an extra liking to Namine.

Last but certainly not least were Riku and Seifer.

Even though school had started a week and a half ago, Seifer was already behind in homework. Namine would tutor him and sometimes (sometimes!) let Seifer copy her homework in exchange for Seifer tutoring Namine in math and buying her a snack at school when she was hungry. Namine, at first didn't want Seifer buying her a snack but after a few days she just let him be. Although Seifer wasn't the best student, he excelled in Math and he made math easier for Namine to understand.

From all of her friends, Namine was closest to Riku. Since Riku was in almost all of her classes the two constantly sent notes back to each other, texted each other, and they helped each other out. Namine enjoyed Riku's company and she knew that she could trust him now even though she has only known him for a short period of time. He would always say things that made Namine blush and made her heart flutter.

Like Seifer though, Riku was already behind in homework and had made a few enemies with his teachers. That didn't stop the boys from having a blast in class. They were wild and crazy and somehow last Monday in History along with Tidus and Wakka they nearly blew up the classroom with a magazine and a pencil. Namine had no idea how that was possible and unfortunately for the boys, they received an extra week of detention.

Speaking of detention her week in detention wasn't as bad as she had expected it to be. All she did during that week was eat some more pizza with peanut butter cups, try ice cream with nachos, eat a burger drenched in soup and eat some really spicy tacos with ketchup. Overall, her taste buds would never be the same. After ordering the food, they would either play card games (which for some reason Cid always won) or talk to one another. It was a fun experience for everybody although Namine knew she couldn't get detention anymore or Roxas would be out for blood.

Overall, Namine couldn't complain about her school so far, just the busloads of homework she was getting in English from Madam Maleficent. That lady was extremely cold to her students and wouldn't let them talk at all. Riku believed that she was like that because she hadn't found a great guy yet.

"Namine!"

The blonde who was currently daydreaming in said class snapped out of her thoughts and turned to Riku. "Geez Namine. I've been trying to get your attention for the past 80 years. The bell rang which means we have approximately 5 minutes to get to class." Riku said and Namine laughed. "Sorry, I was just thinking." The silver haired boy nodded and waited for the blonde to pack up her belongings so they could walk together.

During the passing time for second period, it was decided that Riku would walk Namine to her art class and when the bell rang for the end of class, Namine would meet Riku and Seifer by the gym and all three of them would walk to math class. Once Namine grabbed her stuff the two started walking towards Namine art's class.

"Man, I really wish this day wouldn't end." Riku said and Namine patted his arm. Riku had told Namine about his father's punishment after he heard about Riku getting detention. He had left most of the details out and tried to keep it as vague as possible without letting Namine know about his father's company or that he was rich.

"Well that's what you get for being a troublemaker." Riku did a double take and said "Nami! You are supposed to be on my side! What if my father's co-workers are interested in little boys who aren't legal yet?" Namine laughed and said, "You aren't little Riku." Riku groaned and said, "That's not the point. You know what I mean." Namine laughed at Riku while Riku said, "I'm serious!"

The two teens continued chatting until they reached Namine's art class. "I kind of wish I had art class now. I swear our coach is trying to kill us!" Riku said but then smirked and finished with "Although, I do like the workout, I bet you love the results." Namine's eyes widened and she started blushing, which made the silver-haired boy smile. He was hoping to get that reaction from the blonde, he found it cute when she blushed.

"I bet she doesn't because whenever you hug her your crushing her and the poor girl can't breathe."

Riku groaned and looked to see that one of his least favorite people in this school, Cloud Strife was walking towards them and smirking. "You're just jealous that my muscles are much more refined than yours, Strife." Cloud just rolled his eyes and said, "Shouldn't you get going now? Unless you want detention for being late of course." Riku scowled since he knew the blonde haired boy was right. "I'm going now. See you after class Nami." He then proceeded to hug the blonde girl while glaring at the older boy and with a wave, Riku went towards the gym.

"Why don't you guys like each other?"

Cloud stared at Namine and said, "It's a long story which I will save for another time." Namine rolled her eyes playfully and the two blondes entered their art class.

* * *

Axel was a not a happy camper.

In fact he was downright annoyed. In times like these his hands ached to get a cigar to calm him down but he's proud to say that he hasn't smoked in three years and plans to keep it that way. He still drinks though but he wasn't even sure if a dozen drinks would make him calm down.

The reason why he was like this?

Reno.

Axel loved his brother but what he hated was how he would always call or text him saying that he was in town and assumed that he was going to stay at his apartment. It would be fine if he called a week or two in advance but that wasn't Reno's style. Reno liked to surprise people, especially his younger brother who he always surprised ever since they were little.

"Axel, we need you here on Earth."

Axel snapped out of his thoughts as he saw his best friend and Xigbar staring at him and trying not to laugh. "Last time I saw you this down Ax was when Larxene turned you down twice in a day." Axel glared at his friend but Xigbar just brushed it off.

The trio was currently in the break room of Organization XIII because they had finished their cars early and decided to take their break early.

"Why are older siblings such a pain in the ass?"

Xigbar laughed while Roxas scowled but then said, "What did Reno do this time?"

"Well…"

**Flashback**

Axel had just gotten out of his car and was going inside Organization XIII when he heard his cell phone ring. Without even looking at the caller ID he opened it and answered it. "Axel speaking."

"Hey bro!"

Axel slightly cringed at the speaker's voice because he knew exactly who it was. He was however, scared of the reason why he was calling.

"Hey Reno."

"Listen, I'm in town right now but I got no place to stay and I don't want to spend my time in some cheap motel where the sheets haven't been cleaned in years. Mind having a roommate for a few days?"

That was Reno all right, always getting straight to the point without straying off topic. "Well, I'm not really sure Reno, since the guest bedroom is being occupied right now by Namine since she lives with us now."

Axel then heard his brother say "No way!" While they were growing up in Destiny Islands, although Reno teased and made fun of Axel, Roxas, and Sora, he was really nice to Namine and saw her as a little sister.

"Namine! Get out! I thought she was still living with her mom!"

Axel then quickly explained the situation and after Reno said, "Well, I'm glad she's in jail. Bitch had it coming."

Reno had such a way with words.

Quickly changing the subject before Axel was going to reply, Reno said, "I can just sleep in that couch you guys have. You wouldn't leave your only brother out on the streets to sleep would you?"

Damn Reno for guilt tripping him.

"Alright, alright! You can stay at the apartment. But please don't eat everything we have. You did that the last time and Roxas was not happy."

He heard Reno laugh and then Reno said "Don't worry I won't. Scout's honor or whatever it is they say. I can't make promises about the alcohol in the house though."

Axel rolled his eyes and said, "Fine. But don't give any to Namine!"

"I won't! Oh! By the way, does Sora still live at that one apartment complex with Kairi?"

"Yes, he does. Why?"

"I'm just wondering, geez it's not like I'm going to break into his home or something!"

Axel was a bit suspicious still but he dropped the subject. "I assume you still have the spare keys to our apartment correct?"

"Of course! See you later Ax and thanks!"

Axel heard the click and then groaned as he put away his cell phone.

**End of Flashback**

"And that is what pretty much happened."

"Well, this is turning out to be a really bad day." Roxas had said. He wasn't too fond of Reno but he could tolerate him. Reno was a funny guy like his brother but he since he was older he would make him and Axel do things for him and Roxas almost killed him last time when he ate everything they had in the fridge. Luckily for Roxas though, Reno had gotten food poisoning for drinking the spoiled milk that he was going to throw away that night.

Axel's curiosity perked up when Roxas had said this. "What do you mean by bad?" Xigbar cut in and said, "Xemnas's son is coming over to help with the shop. It's part of his punishment apparently; I'm not sure what he did though. You two will be the ones helping him out so you might have to work overtime."

"I'm no baby sitter!" Axel yelled and Xigbar just rolled his eyes at him. "He's 17 years old, he doesn't need a baby sitter. Just order him around and then he will do all the work for you. It's like a mini vacation for you guys!"

"Alright, we'll do it, let me just send a text to Sora to tell him to pick up Namine after school today since we won't be able too." Roxas said as he took out his cellphone and quickly texted his brother.

"Hopefully, he listens to us and isn't a spoiled brat since Xemnas is loaded with cash."Axel said when he saw that Roxas had finished texting his brother. Xigbar was about to tell them something when they heard a crash and someone say "Sorry!"

Axel laughed and said, "Well, let's go see what Demyx did this time." The three got up from the break room and put their worries about Xemnas's son and Reno aside.

At least, for now.

* * *

Reno smirked as he hung up the phone. He knew that his little brother could never say no to him. However, he hadn't told Axel the real reason why he was in Twilight Town. That reason.

He was moving there.

He had received a phone call from his long time best friend Rude that there was an opening at his company for a helicopter pilot. Of course, Reno had immediately accepted since he hated his job at Destiny Islands and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Unfortunately for Reno, he had packed his bags, driven to Twilight Town but had no place to stay.

That is where his brother came in.

He was going to stay at Axel's place for at least a week since not only did Rude offer a job for Reno, but also their other good friend Zack Fair. He had met Zack and Rude in Destiny Islands and he got along with them. Zack was just like him, he was loud and obnoxious while Rude was quiet and serious. Zack has long spiky black hair while Rude was bald but he wore sunglasses and had a goatee.

When they had graduated high school, Rude's father had passed away, making Rude the CEO of his father's company. Rude had to move to Twilight Town since that was where the main office of the company was and now Rude was a wealthy man. Zack on the other hand, had stayed with Reno to go to Destiny Community College but after a year the two quit and got crappy jobs, which they had held until a week ago. They would have looked for another job but the pay was impressive for the job.

Zack had left Destiny Islands a few days before Reno and was staying at his dad's house for now. Zack's parents had divorced a long time ago when he was a kid and his mom had taken Zack while his dad had taken his younger brother Cloud. That's why both of the siblings had different last names. Like the twins Roxas and Sora, Zack and Cloud were very close and inseparable. Zack would try and visit Cloud as much as he could and he could tell that Zack was happy now that he was going to see his brother a lot since he graduated this year.

Reno sighed as he looked at the time. He had made plans with Rude and Zack to meet at some local bar that Rude liked but that wasn't until 4 in the afternoon so Reno had a lot of time to kill. He wanted to bug his brother but he was at work and so was Roxas and he was pretty sure Namine was at school.

Which left one person who he hadn't seen in a while.

Sora Heart.

Reno grinned and then started his car and made his way to Sora's place hoping that Sora was there so he could bug him.

Just like the good old days.

* * *

"Sora please!"

Sora stared at his girlfriend and sighed. The two were currently relaxing on their day off and were trying to choose what movie to watch to kill the time. They had made plans with Roxas to have dinner with them tonight.

Sora wanted to watch an action movie while Kairi felt like watching a romantic comedy. Sora hated watching those but whenever he tried to stand strong Kairi would use her puppy dogface and make Sora obey her every command.

He wished he had perfected the puppy dogface that way, life would have been way easier.

"Alright, we can watch the movie you want to see. I can never say no to you Kairi!" The red haired girl cheered and hugged her boyfriend and kissed his cheek. "Trust me you won't regret this! Aqua told me that Ven liked it!"

"Ven watches chick flicks!? No way! I have got to tell Terra about it!" Sora said as he pictured the tall brown haired man laughing at Ven's love for chick flicks. "If you tell that to Terra, I'll tell him how you sleep with your stuffed animal, Goofy!" Sora looked up at his girlfriend in horror and said, "Don't bring Goofy into this!"

When they were very little, Kairi, as a birthday present had given Sora a stuffed animal that was a dog and Sora had named it Goofy because to him his expression was 'goofy'. Sora to this day, still slept with Goofy nestled in his arms. Only Kairi and Namine knew about this because if the boys found out they would never leave Sora alone.

"If you don't tell Terra that Ven likes chick flicks, I won't tell him about Goofy. Besides, I think it's sweet when a guy likes girly movies." Sora then grinned and said, "Don't you think it's sweet that I have Goofy still though?" Kairi giggled and said, "Of course! That's why I love you Sora."

The two were slowly leaning in to kiss when they heard the doorbell ring. Sora got up from the couch and without even looking through the peephole opened the door.

Only to be met by a really hurtful noogie.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Sora said as he was trying to get out of the mysterious person's grip. The stranger started laughing and then let go off Sora who started rubbing his head. Sora then looked up and his expression turned into shock but then into a grin.

"Reno!"

"In the flesh" The older redhead said as he made himself comfortable by sitting down on the couch. "Hey Kairi, I'm surprised your still with this guy." "HEY!" Sora said and sat down next to Reno. Kairi laughed and said, "Hey Reno so what are you doing in Twilight Town this time?" Reno shrugged and said, "Can't I visit my favorite people in the world?"

Kairi was about to reply when she heard the house phone ring and excused herself to go pick it up. Kairi's phone was currently charging since her battery had died from texting Yuffie so much. She had told Sora previously that she was expecting a call from Yuffie to tell her about the details of her date with an older man named Cid who apparently was a teacher at Namine's school.

Sora then turned to look at Reno and said, "Do you want something to drink or eat? I think we have some soda still?" Reno nodded and Sora got up to get him his drink. As he got up however, he didn't notice that his cellphone had fallen out of his pocket and landed on the couch.

Reno was about to lie down on the couch when he heard a vibration from the couch. He realized that it came from Sora's phone and since it only vibrated once, he concluded that it was a text message. Unlike a lot of people who would just leave the phone alone, Reno decided to check out whom the message was from.

_Hey Sora, can you pick up Nami after school? Axel and I can't today. I told her to meet you at the front of the school. Thanks- Roxas_

Reno grinned as a plan was formulating in his mind. He immediately knew that this visit wasn't in vain. He was going to have a fun time with Rude and Zack, even if meant bringing a certain blonde girl to the mix. He erased the text and put the cell phone back as he heard Sora coming back with a soda can on his hand. "Here you go!" Sora said, as he gave it to Reno who drank half of it in an instant without giving Sora a thank you. Sora was used to it to it though since that was the type of character Reno was.

"So how is Namine doing? Axel told me that she lives with them now." Reno asked casually hoping that sounded normal enough. Sora smiled and said, "She's doing good here. She seems way more happier here than back in Desitny Islands. She goes to Hollow Bastion High since it's the school that is closest to their apartment." Sora said while Reno nodded but secretly cheered that Sora had told him the name of the school.

"Well, that's good that she's happy. She deserves it, she's a good kid." Reno said and Sora agreed. The two continued talking about what has been going on in their lives (Reno made sure not to let slip the fact that he was moving there.) Reno then looked at the clock and if his estimation was correct, Namine would be out of school at 3pm. The time was now 2:40pm so he decided that it was time for him to go.

"Well, as much as I'd love to continue talking, I have to go right now. I promised Rude that I'd meet up with him at that one bar, 7th Heaven, you've heard of it?" Sora beamed and said, "Who hasn't? It's a pretty popular hang out place, especially at night since everybody is dancing and stuff. I haven't gone in there since you have to be 21 but Axel has brought me a milkshake from there. They make the best milkshakes there, I swear!"

Reno laughed at Sora's innocence. Sora had never done drugs nor had anything to drink before and it was a rare sight to see someone at his age not do that before. "I'll try one then, just for you. Tell Kairi I said bye, man girls talk on the phone a lot." "You have no idea." Sora said and the two shared a knowing look.

Reno drank the rest of his soda, handed the can to Sora, and with a salute walked out of the door and into his car. Once he had put on his seatbelt, he cranked the volume up high and sped off to Hollow Bastion High. With his unique sense of direction, he was pretty sure he would find it in 10 mins. since Sora did say it was by the apartment complex where Axel, Roxas, and Namine lived.

He hoped that Namine was ready for a truly fun day.

* * *

The glorious bell had rung which meant that the teens were now free from school for the rest of the day. Students were going to their lockers or talking with friends and either going to the parking lot to drive off or going to the bus stop. Namine had received her brother's text about how he was going to be late and that Sora was going to pick her up.

Riku once the bell had ringed, had to immediately go and find his dad's car and leave to await his punishment for receiving detention. His dad had used his charm (as Seifer had put it) to let them excuse Riku from detention today in order to work at his dad's shop.

Seifer had left early in the day because he had a doctor's appointment. Of course, Riku knew that was in fact a lie since Seifer would use every excuse in the book to be able to see Paine again. However, Seifer had to go back for detention, which he did. He said that after school however, he was going to a find Riku and ask him about his day afterwards.

Namine had taken her time getting her textbooks that she needed out of her locker and then she closed it. She knew Sora sometimes took a while to pick her up since he got distracted so easily. She had just wasted at least ten minutes grabbing her belongings and decided to wait for Sora while sitting on a bench. While walking there she saw Fuu, Rai, and Vivi and waved at them and when she finally reached the entrance she didn't see Sora there.

Instead she saw a familiar face leaning against a red car and with a smirk on his face. "RENO!" Namine yelled and ran to the redheaded figure who enveloped her in a hug. "Hey blondie! Long time no see, yo?" Reno let go of Namine and then she asked, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back in the Islands? Where's Sora?" Reno laughed and said, "Wow there kiddo! One question at a time please! And the answers are I'm here to visit, I shouldn't be back in the Islands, and this was all a surprise. The guys already knew I would be coming and we told you that Sora was going to pick you up so you would be surprised to see me."

"That's great! I'm happy to see you Reno!" Namine said and Reno helped her put her belongings in the trunk of his car. When they had gotten inside Reno said, "So, I have to meet up with some friends at 4pm and I'm taking you with me whether you like it or not. We are going to 7th Heaven." Namine gasped when Reno mentioned that name. Axel had told her about 7th Heaven and it was a very popular bar. A lot of kids at her school had tried to sneak in but they would always get caught in the end. "Don't you have to be 21 to get in? I mean it is a bar."

"Nonsense! I'm pretty sure Rude can get you in. Don't worry, I heard they have the best milkshakes there and I remember that when it was after school I was always starving yo." Just as he said that, Namine's stomach growled and she blushed which made Reno laugh. "Well, let's go, as long as you don't get us in trouble there!"

"I won't. At least, I think I won't."

* * *

"You ready to meet the spawn of Xemnas?"

"Geez Axel, your making him sound like he's a monster."

Axel who was getting the paint ready for the car said, "Well for all you know he could be. I mean he is related to Xemnas." Roxas laughed as he made sure that the windows were covered up so they wouldn't get any paint on them. The owner wanted his car to be a bright red color instead of the dull yellow that was chipping.

Just as the two were setting up, their boss walked in along with a tall silver-haired boy. Roxas and Axel heard them walk in and they turned around but were shocked to see who Xemnas's son was.

"KID?"

"ROXY?!"

The two stared at each other with mouths open wide but were snapped out of their reverie when they heard Axel say,

"AXEL!"

All three men stared at the red head who just shrugged sand said, "Well, nobody mentioned my name." Xemnas raised an eyebrow and said, "I take it you know each other then?"

"Yeah Dad, he's my friend's older brother. The one that I told you about."

"I don't recall you telling me about a friend." Xemnas said but Riku just rolled his eyes and brushed off his comment. His Dad never listened to Riku and he was used to this treatment. He only listened when Riku did something bad. "I did Dad, when I told you I got detention."

Xemnas didn't even acknowledge his son and continued talking. "Anyway, since you know each other, I suggest you start working now. By the way, one of you will have to give a ride home to Riku or your fired. I have important business to take care of and my eldest son will be in his night class. Understood?"

"Sir yes sir!" Axel said and without saying goodbye, Xemnas exited out of the garage. "Xemnas needs to learn some people skills or something." Axel said and Riku snorted. "He needs that and he needs to learn how to be a good father." He said bitterly but then shook his head. "So, what am I suppose to do?" Riku said and Axel quickly explained to him how he was going to paint the car. Riku then, proceeded to paint the car while Roxas and Axel supervised.

After an hour and a half of awkward silence and the only noise being the airbrush, Riku had finally finished and his reward was a nice cold soda from the break room. The three men sat around a table and Riku drank his soda greedily and after he said, "I'm not going to lie, that was pretty hard!" The two older men laughed.

"It may be hard, but at least we get paid some good cash." Axel said, as he took a sip of his soda. Roxas smirked as he leaned on his chair. An awkward silence resumed until the older men heard Riku say "Listen, can you not tell Namine that my dad owns Organization XIII? I don't want her to know yet." "Why not?" "A lot of people have used me just because I'm rich and I know Namine won't use me but I'm not ready for her to know yet." The two boys understood and nodded and Riku then said, "Thank you."

Roxas decided to change the subject.

"So when you get in trouble your Dad just makes you work?" Riku nodded and said, "Yeah, but I'm usually the errand boy for my Dad. This was the first time I actually had to do the work. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I told Nami that I would probably end up working with a bunch of perverted guys."

Axel laughed but Roxas scowled since Riku had called his little sister by her nickname which meant that they were pretty close since Namine only allowed certain people to call her that. This was not good.

"So you call her Nami now?"

"Well, yeah. I mean we are friends, in fact she's become one of my closest friends now."

"Do you like her?"

"Yeah, I do."

"I meant as more than a friend."

The silver haired boy spit out the remaining soda he had left. He was not expecting that question. He wasn't sure about his feelings for the blonde and he was sure as hell not going to talk about his feelings to her older brother.

"I-uh-" Riku stuttered because he wasn't sure how to answer that. He was saved however when a certain brunette walked in and grinned at them. "Hey guys! Since Kairi went to Yuffie's house to talk more about how her date went, I decided to stop by and visit you guys." Roxas smiled as he saw his brother take a seat but then frowned when he didn't see the youngest blonde with him.

"Did you pick up Nami?"

Sora stared at his twin with a confused look and said, "You didn't tell me I was suppose to pick her up." Roxas' eyes twitched and he said, "I sent you a text about a few hours ago to pick her up." The oldest twin showed the youngest his sent messages and it showed that he had indeed sent him a text to pick Namine up.

"I never received it then!" The brunette double checked his inbox and saw that there was no message received from Roxas on that day. The oldest sibling started panicking. "You mean Namine hasn't been picked up yet? Do you have any idea what might happen to her?!"

"Calm down, Roxas. She's probably at the school's library or something. Why don't you call her?"

The oldest blonde got up and said, "I'll call her while we drive towards the school. Riku, since we are giving you a lift home come with us. Maybe you might know where Namine will be at the school."

The silver haired boy nodded and he hoped just like the rest of the guys, that Namine was okay.

* * *

Reno was right when he said he said that his friend could let Namine in.

Reno and Namine entered through the back and if anyone asked them about ID, they simply said they were with Rude and they left them alone. Reno lead Namine to a booth in the back next to the pool tables and she noticed two figures sitting there and sipping some cold beer.

7th Heaven was in a part of Twilight Town that was beat down where all the gang members hung out. It wasn't the safest part of town but as long as you weren't alone, you would be fine. The bar was decorated like a regular bar with pool tables, booths, three big screen TV's and a few waiters and waitresses here and there giving the drinks to people or letting them order food. If it wasn't a bar, Namine thought that it would be a great place to hang out after school with friends.

When they had finally reached the booth, Reno slid in before Namine and they noticed that neither of the two had heard them yet. Reno wanted his precense to be known so he smacked his hand on the table and said, "Yo losers, what's up?"

The two figures looked up and Namine was able to see them properly. One of them looked very serious and was dressed fancy while the other looked laid back and was grinning at Reno, but his grin widened at seeing the blonde girl.

"Reno! I thought you were dead or something since it took you forever to show up. But now I know why your late. You really know how to pick them. I didn't know you liked them this young." The redhead man rolled his eyes and said, "Haha, very funny Zack. I was late because I had to pick up my brother's best friend's sister. Guys, this is Namine, Namine the bald guy is Rude and the other guy is Zack. I apologize in advance for his arrogance and lack of intelligence."

"Hey!"

Reno ignored him and started talking to Rude. Namine let the three boys catch up and then she started spacing out. She was thinking about Riku. He really was a great guy and a wonderful friend, but she was also confused about her feelings for him. She liked him, but did she like him in that way?

She was snapped out of her reverie when she saw Reno and Rude get up to go play some darts nearby, leaving her and Zack behind. "So, Namine how old are you?" Namine looked at Zack and said, "I'm sixteen." The older man whistled and said, "Those were the good old days man. I'm 23 and now, I feel like a perverted old man talking to you."

Namine giggled and said, "Well, I feel pretty awkward talking to an older guy. So I guess were even?" Zack let out a loud laugh and said "I like you!" The two continued to talk and Namine didn't notice a redhead secretly grab her backpack and take out her cellphone.

* * *

Roxas, Sora, Axel, and Riku had finally reached the school but to their shock the school was already closed. Roxas had been trying to call Namine but for some reason, she wouldn't answer which made the blonde even more worried.

However, Roxas tried one more time and then he heard a male's voice answer.

"Reno?"

"Hey there Roxie! Long time no chat eh?"

"Reno, why the hell do you have Namine's phone?"

"I don't know."

"RENO!"

"Okay, okay geez! I picked up Namine from school and we are eating at some restaurant. It's a celebration for her living here and getting away from her mom. She's in the bathroom right now. Don't worry, I'll bring her home early!"

Roxas closed his eyes in order to calm himself down from trying to go through the phone and kill Reno but he was relieved that Namine was safe. "Just, don't do that okay? Sora nearly died of a heart attack because Namine was missing."

"You were the one that was panicking" Reno heard in the background and he chuckled. "Roxas, Roxas, Roxas. You need to chill out yo. Don't worry, Nami is safe and we should be back in an hour or so. Nothing is going to happen so chill and go get a drink or better yet get laid!"

"I hate you."

"Love you too, sweet cakes. See you later."

Roxas heard the cellphone click and turned to see the three other males faces relieved.

"At least we know that she's safe."

"Yeah with Reno."

The three older men looked at each other and Riku noticed that they weren't at ease with the fact that Namine was with this Reno guy.

"_Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"_

* * *

_  
_

"So did it hurt?"

"What hurt?"

"When you fell from the sky?"

Namine laughed at Zack's fifth attempt with his corny pick up lines. Zack had been trying to get her to go on a date with him sometime next week by using his so called 'charm' to woo her. She had to admit that Zack was cute but she preferred a certain silver haired boy.

She blushed at the thought and Zack grinned when he said, "That pick up line works everytime!" Namine rolled her eyes but blushed more when she and Zack heard her stomach growl. "Looks like blondie is hungry! Don't worry, I'll order you one of their milkshakes, with one straw for us to share." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Namine could not help to burst out laughing again. Zack was just too funny.

Zack motioned to a nearby waitress to come to the table. Her eyes widened when she recognized who the waitress was.

"Tifa?"

Tifa was dressed in black pants and a black shirt and when she saw Namine, she nearly dropped her tray. "Namine! What are you doing here? I don't think your twenty-one." Reno, who was eavesdropping on the conversation, removed his sunglasses that he had been wearing and said, "She's with us, Tifa." That made Tifa not question why Namine was at the bar.

"Hold on. Why are you here?" Namine questioned. Sure, Tifa was a year older than Namine but she definetly was not twenty-one. Tifa laughed and said, "Oh! My dad owns this bar. I work part-time but only in the afternoons. The night crowd is too rowdy for me, at least that's what my Dad says. I also let Cloud, Leon, Rikku, and Aerith in when they need a place to relax. It's like a home away from home for them."

"Wait, Tifa! As in Tifa Lockheart? Are you the one that is dating a Cloud Strife?" Zack said as he smirked at the brunette. The girl tilted her head and said, "How do you know Cloud?"

"I'm his older brother of course! It's clear that I got the better looks, Cloud just got the good eyes."

"What about me?"

Tifa, Zack, and Namine turned and saw Cloud and Leon walk up to them.. Tifa hugged her boyfriend and Cloud then realized who was the one that was talking about him. "Zack, what are you doing here…with Namine?"

"What does it look like? I'm on a date with her of course!"

Namine smacked Zack on his arm and he rubbed it. "Tough love eh? I like it." Cloud was about to ask why Namine was at the bar but he saw Tifa's look which meant to not ask. "So this is your girlfriend Cloudy. Aren't you kids adorable?"

Tifa blushed and Cloud glared at his older brother, which made him laugh. Reno and Rude had come at this moment. "So that's your brother, Zack?" "Yupp, that's my obnoxious bro. I don't know who the guy next to him is though."

Cloud scowled at his brother and Leon introduced himself. Reno then said,"Cool, cool. Anyway, Tifa sweetheart, you're the waitress right?" Tifa nodded and said, "Can you be a doll and get me three beers and a milkshake for blondie here?" He pointed at Namine who said, "Why is everyone calling me blondie?" Tifa wrote down the order and went to go get it.

"It's a great nickname for a great girl." Zack said and the two blondes rolled their eyes. Namine was about to reply when she turned pale as she noticed four guys playing pool. She recognized two of them, which was why she turned pale.

It was Saix and Marluxia.

So far they hadn't seen her which was good but they might see her soon. Namine ducked and everyone noticed her demeanor change. "Blondie, what's wrong. It looks like you just saw a ghost." Reno said as he saw that she was staring at the four figures playing pool.

Zack put two and two together and said, "Have those guys been bugging you?" Namine turned even paler when she realized that they had figured out why she had turned pale. "I take hat as a yes, then?"

"Want us to take care of them?"

Her eyes widened and then she started panicking even more when she saw Zack, Reno, Leon, and Cloud walk towards them. Rude had decided to stay behind to watch the spectacle that was about to happen. He had a front row seat.

"You guys!" Namine said, and she quickly followed the guys.

* * *

Marluxia, Saix, Xaldin and Lexaeus were currently finishing a game of pool and drinking after another day at work. Marluxia was talking to Lexaues when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He turned around and saw four unfamiliar faces and one very familiar face.

"Namine, how nice to see you."

Namine hid behind Cloud since he was the closest because she did not want to see Marluxia's face grinning at her. Reno smirked and went to retrieve two pool cues. Once he came back he went up to Marluxia and gave him one of the pool cues.

"How about a nice game of pool?"

* * *

A/N: Haha I wanted Zack to be playful so hopefully that came out well. Haha I left it at a cliffhanger! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I'm writing the next one tonight and hopefully I'll be able to update it by next week! Don't forget to review! Sorry for any misspellings I had to upload this chapter fast!

Thank You! :D


	7. Brawl

**New Beginnings**

AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?

A/N: Hey everybody! I'm glad you guys liked chapter 6! That was a blast to write yet it was difficult since I was still in school when writing that. But, senior year is officially over and I'm no longer in high school. I also had my University Orientation and it was so so stressful! I like my classes though and I'm super excited to take Intro to Astronomy! It should be fun haha. Anyway, enough about me I know the reason you're here is because of the chapter haha.

Here is chapter 7!

* * *

**Chapter 7: Brawl**

"A nice game of pool eh?"

The redhead smirked as he twirled his pool cue around. "Of course, you look like a bunch of guys who would enjoy this friendly game." Saix came up to the men and said, "What's the catch?" Zack shrugged and said, "What do you want?"

Marluxia's eyes took a quick glance at Namine, which did not go unnoticed by anyone. "That's not one of the prizes." Reno growled out and he made sure that Namine was behind someone so Marluxia would not be able to see her.

Marluxia let out a laugh and as he examined his pool cue he said, "Well, clearly that's the only prize I see here." Zack even though he has only known Namine for a few hours saw her as a friend already and he was about to lunge at Marluxia but Leon held him back.

"Let me go you big jerk! Wait until I get my hands on him!" Zack said but then he saw Reno's grin and knew that his friend was up to something and that in the long run would cause a lot of damage.

Oh well.

"Calm down Zacky. Don't lose your marbles just yet." Reno said, as he made sure that Leon had a good grip on Zack. Once he was satisfied he went up to Marluxia. "Before we begin our game though, I feel like a bad person because we haven't even introduced ourselves yet. My mom taught me some manners, unlike yours. My name is Reno."

Saix started laughing and said, "Are you serious? What kind of man are you?"

"I'm one of a kind blue boy." That little nickname made the blue haired man narrow his eyes and his grip on his beer tightened. Marluxia, who notice his friends distress looked at Reno and said, "I appreciate your politeness. It's not everyday you meet someone with _wonderful_ manners. My name is Marluxia."

Namine was looking at Reno and Marluxia and she was hoping that nothing bad would happen. Hopefully, they would just play a simple game of pool (with no cheating) and leave it at that.

That was some wishful thinking.

She looked around the bar and even though there weren't that many people everybody was looking over at them to see what the commotion was about. Tifa had gone to their table and was putting the drinks down and asking Rude what was going on. She didn't understand what Rude said but it made Tifa pale and she immediately went to the back of the bar to hopefully, get somebody (or her dad) to stop what might possibly happen next.

"You see when I meet new people I like to make really great first impressions." Reno said as he was walking up to Marluxia with the pool cue in his grip. "I hope you remember my first impression."

With that Reno punched Marluxia in the face.

* * *

"So, she's with Reno then?"

Sora nodded and he saw his girlfriend sigh as she sat down on one of the chairs in the kitchen table and take a muffin. Sora, Kairi, Roxas, Axel, and Riku were all around the kitchen table in Roxas's and Axel's apartment waiting for a certain redhead and blonde to come back. They were going to drop off Riku before going back to the apartment but he forgot his house keys and his father and brother weren't going to be home until later in the evening.

"Do you have the slightest clue on where they could possibly be?" Roxas asked his best friend and he said, "Even though he's my brother, I have no idea what type of places he likes to hang out at." "Well, are there any popular hang outs around here that your brother would like?" Riku asked as he grabbed a muffin as well since he hadn't eaten ever since lunch.

Axel shook his head and Sora said, "I remember that when he came in the afternoon he was saying something about meeting up with a friend but I don't remember the place's name." Sora said as he awkwardly rubbed his neck. Sora, bless his soul was a very forgetful person so nobody expected him to remember anything. After that an awkward silence loomed in the kitchen. Nobody really knew what to say but Kairi did not want to be stuck in a silent room with four worried boys. She decided to spice up the conversation by asking Riku about his relationship status and give the information she received to a certain young blonde.

"So Riku, do you have a girlfriend?"

"No, I don't." Riku said and he gave Kairi a strange look. What kind of question was that? "Oh really? Well, what do you look for in a girl?" "Uh.." Riku started and he felt weird that she was asking these types of questions, especially with these 3 guys around the table who were waiting for his reply.

"I look for someone sweet, funny and caring I guess, kind of like Na-where are you going with this?" He asked catching himself from saying Namine's name. Kairi gave Riku an innocent stare and said, "I'm just wondering. You seem like a great guy."

"Kairi are you hitting on a guy who's younger than you? I didn't know you were a cougar!"

Kairi glared at Axel and she threw a piece of her muffin at him. Axel opened his mouth and caught the piece in his mouth, which made Kairi glare at him even more. "I'm just wondering, geez! Is that a bad thing? Besides, I prefer men my age and I already have him, so no offense Riku."

"None taken, I prefer girls younger than me."

Roxas, who was sipping some of his water, started chocking on it and Axel had to pat him on the back. He started choking because he knew that Riku was a year older than Namine.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Roxas snapped at the silver hair boy whose eyes had widened. Kairi did not want the silver haired boy to be killed just yet since she had to get him and Namine together. She had to help him out! "Just ignore him Riku, he's crazy. He can't get any girls, I have no idea how he managed to get his girlfriend."

Roxas was about to reply but Kairi said, "Here, try this muffin Roxas, these muffins are so good!" and she proceeded to stuff his face with one of the muffins, nearly chocking the blonde. When Roxas was able to swallow his muffin he said, "Are you trying to kill me Kai?"

"Maybe."

"Sora, I have no idea what you see in her." Roxas said and Kairi just stuck her tongue out, thankful that she was able to change the topic, even if it almost killed the blonde haired boy.

"Whatever, Roxas. Since we have nothing else to do now, whose hungry? I feel like ordering a pizza since I believe Reno is going to come back later on in the night. What do you say? We can drop Riku off after?"

"Sure, why not! Besides, I'm hungry and I feel like getting some greasy and bad food." Axel said and everybody laughed when he rubbed his stomach. Kairi was glad that she had found a way to make the boys stop worrying about Namine and hopefully she could get to know more about Riku, without any of the boys creating a distraction. She was going to make sure that Riku and Namine got together.

Kairi loved to play matchmaker.

* * *

That punch started a very chaotic brawl.

Reno immediately lunged at Marluxia and he had him pinned to the ground where he was trying to beat the daylights out of him. Saix who was distracted by the punch didn't see Zack get out of Leon's grip and kick him in the stomach. Lexaeus, who saw his friend get hurt hit Zack but luckily for Zack before Lexaeus was going to body slam him; Cloud had grabbed a pool cue and hit it over Lexaeus head. Leon had his arms crossed, clearly amused by the fight but then he heard Xaldin coming behind him so he just punched him in the face, which knocked him down.

"You guys stop!"

Namine had moved away from the brawling men and was watching their fight from afar. She knew that if she got in between she would probably end up getting hurt but that might just end the brawl. She noticed that Rude, like Leon had his arms crossed and a smirk was playing on his lips. Namine assumed that Rude was always a spectator in fights but maybe she could ask him to stop it.

Namine did not like violence and whenever someone hit another, she would wince or close her eyes. Punches were being thrown here and there, kicks were being felt, and grunts were being heard. She then saw that Marluxia had managed to get out of being pinned and now had Reno pinned on top of the pool table and to her horror she saw that he had grabbed a pool ball. Namine knew that Marluxia was going to hit Reno with the pool ball and she knew she had to stop it and without even thinking about the consequences she quickly made her way towards the brawling pair.

As she got closer she saw that Marluxia had raised his hand and was about to hit Reno but she grabbed his arm. What she didn't know was that Marluxia was the type of person who would get mad if someone had stopped him from hurting another. He turned to see who had grabbed him and was surprised to see that it was Namine.

"Don't hurt him!"

Namine wasn't sure if what she did was brave or foolish as she saw Marluxia's face twist into a sick grin and he grabbed Namine's tiny wrist and was applying pressure. "Nami, _princess_-" Marluxia started in a sickly sweet voice "Don't interrupt us." He finished with a harsh voice and then he let go of Namine and he slapped her face.

Everyone had turned when they heard the smack and Reno, Cloud, Leon, and Zack's blood boiled as they saw Namine fall to the floor clutching her red cheek. Tears were starting to fall and Namine closed her eyes when she saw that Marluxia was leaning down to her level.

"YOU ASSHOLE!"

Namine saw a blur of black hair tackle Marluxia to the ground and saw that the black haired blur was Zack. Zack was uncontrollable as he kept punching Marluxia everywhere in his face. The fighting against everyone had intensified even more and Namine just closed her eyes to block the sounds and the pain that was coming from her cheek. She was pretty sure that it would leave a bruise.

How was she going to explain to her brothers and Axel about the bruise?

The fighting continued and she decided to peek but saw that everyone was starting to get tired. She was praying that someone would come in and stop the fight. She looked at Rude but instead of seeing his playful grin from beforehand, it had turned serious and she saw that his knuckles had turned white from holding the beer to tight. Maybe, now he would stop the fighting?

Fortunately for Namine, her prayers were heard as she saw that her savior was not Rude but a tall man with black hair who had come to out from the back and was trying to get the attention of the men fighting. At first he whistled but when he realized that wasn't going to work, he used his last resort.

He yelled.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and saw a very tall, burly man with his arms on his hips glaring at the fighters. Tifa, stood next to him and if you were a regular at this bar you would know that this man was the owner of 7th Heaven and Tifa's father. Tifa saw Namine on the ground and immediately went to her and pulled her into a hug. Namine accepted the hug but then something sparked in her mind, a maybe brilliant but foolish idea. Namine told Tifa something and Tifa went to go get what she had asked for.

"Now, I understand you guys have problems but to take it out on each other in MY bar and destroying MY property is something I will not tolerate, especially the hitting of a young girl. I want you guys to pay for the ruined property right now and I want to write down the name of the man who hit the girl!"

"Don't worry about the damage costs, I'll pay for it right now."

They all turned and saw Rude get up from his comfortable position on the chair and walk up to Tifa's father with a checkbook in one hand a pen on the other. "How much will it be?"

Tifa's dad told him how much it was (a very hefty price) but Rude just wrote down the amount, signed the check and gave it to him. "I gave you some extra money because you had to endure all this bullshit." Tifa's dad looked at the amount and his eyes widened. "Always the business man aye, Rude?" He said and Rude shrugged. Tifa had come back with a glass of what Namine had asked for. Namine thanked Tifa and turned to watch the conversation at hand.

"Now, which one of you guys hurt the little lady here?"

Everyone stared at Marluxia and he said, "It was clearly an accident. She got in the way." "That is so not true! What the hell man?" Cloud said with disgust laced in his voice. Leon was about to say something as well but Namine cut in. "Yeah, it was an accident."

Everyone stared at Namine as though she had just said she was moving to Mars. "I did get in the way, I shouldn't have. It was my fault really." "Namine! That jerkwad just hit you and your gonna let him get away with it?" Reno said. He did not want this guy to get away with what he did. Sure, Reno has done some pretty messed up things but hitting a girl was unacceptable.

However, what no one knew was that Namine had something up her sleeve.

Namine had gotten up from the floor and was walking towards Marluxia. "It was an accident, don't worry, just like this is an accident." She then with the cup that Tifa had gotten her, she poured it's content on his face. Everyone stared in shock at what Namine had just done.

Reno then burst out laughing followed by Zack and Tifa while Rude, Cloud, and Leon just smirked at Marluxia and his gang. Namine had no idea why she had done that, she felt that she needed to stand up to Marluxia because she was tired of him scaring her and she wanted to prove to herself that she could stand up to him.

"I guess you got yourself into another sticky situation, huh Marluxia?"

Marluxia, who was once again covered in soda viciously glared at Namine and said, "One of these days Namine, I will get even with you and your brothers and I will make sure you experience as much pain as possible. Consider that a threat."

Then Marluxia gave Namine a fierce glare and with the rest of his gang in tow, left 7th heaven. Reno who was still laughing from what happened to Marluxia said

"Well that was one hell of a fight, huh?"

* * *

"Three sevens."

"Bullshit!"

Sora groaned, as he had to retrieve the cards from the big pile. They had already ordered and finished eating the pizza and to relieve the silence and worry, Axel had suggested they play a game of Bullshit. So far, Axel, Roxas, and Kairi only had five cards in their hands while Sora and Riku had almost half of the deck. They were pretty bad at lying.

"This game isn't fair." Sora whined as his deck of cards was now too big to hold in only one hand. "Quit being a baby Sora! It's just a game!" Axel said which earned him a glare from the younger brunette.

"So Riku, have you ever been to Destiny Islands?"

Riku nodded and said, "Only once. My dad had business there so he had to take me with him. I didn't really get to explore the outside much since I was forced to stay in the hotel room. It had a nice view of the ocean though."

"We should take you there and explore! You have to go to the beach there at least once in your life. The sunset is so romantic and pretty! You would love it!"

Kairi was starting to scare Riku but he was trying not to show it. He knew that the older girl was up to something but he wasn't sure what yet. He briefly wondered how Namine dealt with Kairi's questions.

Riku was about to put his four "eights" on the table when they heard Roxas's cellphone ring. Roxas looked at the caller ID and quickly answered it. "Namine?!"

"Close, but no it's Reno."

"Reno, where the hell are you? It's getting late and I thought you said it wouldn't take you that long to be wherever you guys are."

"Chill big brother! We just had to deal with a few…distractions."

"Distractions?"

"Well, please don't kill anybody when you find out what happens. It's hard not to lie about something this big."

Now Roxas was worried.

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you when we get there. Just, don't freak out okay? Right now, Namine does not need a freak out."

"Wait Reno-"

"We are on our way to the apartment. We will tell you what happened there."

Roxas was about to reply but he heard the click, which signaled the end of the phone call. "Roxas what happened?" Sora asked as he sensed his brother's discomfort. "I don't know, Reno wouldn't tell me. They are on their way here right now. What is making me worried is that Reno said to not freak out which means that something really bad went down."

"Maybe Reno is just messing with you?"

"No, he sounded way too serious. Let's just hope that nothing bad happened."

"Four eights."

The older teens looked at Riku and Kairi was secretly glad that Riku had re-started their game as a distraction for them. Kairi grinned when she looked at her deck and realized she had all the eights.

"Bullshit!"

"Aw man!"

* * *

"You okay Namine?"

Namine nodded as she held the ice pack that Tifa had given her to ease the pain. The people that were involved in the fight were all holding ice packs and putting bandages on the cuts they had received.

"I'm fine, it just hurts really bad. You think my brothers will notice?"

Zack who decided to lay down on the table instead of sitting on a chair got up and said, "Oh yeah, babe. They will definitely notice that mark on your cute face." Cloud threw his ice pack at his older brother and said, "You know she's not interested right?"

"Way to hurt a man's pride, bro."

Everyone laughed and then Namine saw Reno get off the phone. "Okay kiddies, as fun as this was, it's time to take Nami home." Namine cringed and said, "I'm not looking forward to that." She got up and waved at everybody and made sure that their injuries weren't too bad. "Even though I hate fighting, I guess I should say thanks for sticking up for me." The guys and Tifa smiled and she said, "If he keeps bugging you, just tell us and I'll make sure these boys taste his medicine all over again."

Namine smiled and then she grabbed her backpack and along with Reno went outside. As they walked to the car they heard footsteps behind them and Reno stopped to see who it was and surprised to see Zack.

"Wait Reno, can I stay with you for the night?"

Namine and Reno gave him a confused look and Zack sighed since he had to explain why he wanted to stay with them tonight.

"See, Cloud is staying at Leon's house and I cannot go alone to the house. My dad already thinks I'm a bad influence on Cloud and if he sees me like this he's going to flip. Please let me spend the night at your brother's place!"

"Well, I'm sleeping on the couch so maybe you can sleep on the carpeted floor?"

"Or I could just sleep with Namine. I'll keep you warm!"

Namine giggled and said, "Of course you can stay with us! I don't' want you to get in trouble with your dad, but like Reno said your sleeping on the floor!"

"Aw no fun man!"

The trio laughed all the way until they got in the car. Reno proceeded to raise the volume high as loud rock music was heard and then he sped off nearly hitting an elderly woman who was crossing the street. "How did you get your license anyhow?" Namine yelled as she was desperately clinging to her seatbelt. Reno smirked and said, "Well, by magic of course!"

The trio then sped off to meet their doom.

* * *

"I WIN!"

Axel had just won their intense game of Bullshit. It was hard and grueling game but in the end victory was bittersweet for Axel. As Axel took a victory swig of his drink they heard the door being opened and people entering laughing. When they saw them walk to the kitchen however, they noticed two things.

One was that there was someone else with Namine and Rude.

Two was that Namine was sporting a bluish purple bruise.

"NAMINE!"

Roxas immediately rushed to his sister's side and touched the bruise, which made Namine wince in pain. Kairi put her hand in her mouth in shock and Axel, Sora, and Riku were angry.

"What happened?"

Reno and Namine had explained them what had transpired and to say the least Riku, Axel, Sora, and Kairi were furious. Roxas was beyond furious, beyond everything imaginable.

He could not believe that Marluxia had hurt his sister again and this time it left a bright mark for the world to see the damage that Marluxia had done.

"First of all, Reno I cannot believe you got into a fight with Marluxia, second of all Namine you shouldn't have gotten in the way of them fighting. Third of all, Reno are you insane? Bringing a sixteen-year-old girl to a bar? Did you even think for a second of what could have happened if you had left Namine alone?"

"She wasn't alone, she was with me!"

They all turned around and saw that Zack was leaning against the wall watching the whole conversation. Axel, who was very disappointed at his brother turned and looked at the stranger. He looked older than him and he had spiky black hair and a smirk was plastered on his face. Roxas also took a good look at the stranger. He then said:

"Wait a minute. Who are you anyway?"

"I'm your future brother-in-law."

"Excuse me?"

"Zack!"

They saw the stranger glare playfully at Namine who laughed at him. During this exchange, Riku clenched his fists as he glared at the guy. Who did he think he was saying that he was going to be Namine's husband?

Did he feel jealous?

"My name is Zack and I'm Reno's bestie. I'm also Cloud Strife's older brother."

Now Riku had another reason to hate the guy.

"I'm so sorry that he's your brother."

Zack stared at the silver haired boy and said, "He's a pain to everybody else, but I guess he's okay in my book. Wait a minute, are you that one boy that he's always complaining about umm..Riku or are you Seifer?"

Riku shook his head and said, "Close, Seifer is the other guy he hates. I'm Riku." Zack whistled, "Geez, my brother sure knows how to pick the guys he hates." Roxas looked back and forth at the pair and then set his gaze on Reno who grinned at him in return.

"Anyway, what the hell is he doing here?"

"Yeah about that-" Reno started as he went up to his brother and put his arm around his shoulder. "Zack here needs a place to stay for the night. He's too much of a chicken to face his daddy."

"I am not a chicken!"

"So I told him he could sleep in the floor tonight. But it's just for tonight so no worries, right?"

Axel sighed and said, "Fine, whatever! Just make sure he stays as far away from Nami as possible." Zack after hearing Axel's comment said, "Don't worry Red, I don't bite. I'm just a Good Samaritan who only takes one free sample and never litters. I'm a saint." Riku snorted in the background.

"Well guys, it's getting pretty late. I'm glad your okay Namine! If I ever see Marluxia again he will face my wrath!" Kairi said and the boys in the room sweat dropped. They all knew from experience to never get Kairi angry. "I'll beat him up as well. You and I make a great team Kai." Sora replied and gave her a cheeky grin.

Kairi looked at Riku and said, "We could give you a ride home if you'd like?" Riku nodded and said, "That would be great, thanks." Kairi gave everybody a hug while Sora did his secret handshake but both of them made sure to hug Namine extra hard.

Riku just waved at everybody but before he was about to leave he felt a hand grab his wrist and he turned. Namine had held him back and then she proceeded to hug him. "See you at school, Riku." Namine said as she let go of him. He could see a slight blush on her cheeks and that made him smile and the jealousy that he was feeling evaporated.

"See ya."

Then the three made their way out of the apartment. Roxas walked up to Namine to inspect the bruise that was left from the brawl. "You are staying home tomorrow Nami." Namine opened her mouth to protest but Roxas silenced her with a stare. "I don't feel comfortable with you going to school sporting a bruise. I think that you need a break after today's events."

"I second that notion-" Axel said "Besides, Roxas and I have the day off tomorrow so it will be like a fun get together in a way." Reno laughed and said, "I'll join you guys since I don't have any other plans, I just have to drop this lamer at his home when he wants." Zack grinned at Reno and said, "That's what best friends are for. Giving them lifts and letting them stay at their house to eat their food."

Axel and Namine laughed nervously and Roxas was silently thankful that he had gone to the supermarket a day beforehand and the fridge was loaded with lots of goodies.

He hoped that those were enough.

* * *

"Dude seriously?"

"Yeah, I can't believe it either!"

Riku, once he had been dropped off, said thank you for the ride, had rung the doorbell, waited for father to open the door and without saying a word, he ran to his room and quickly dialed his best friend's number. He felt so angry about what had happened to Namine but he knew he couldn't express the anger around her siblings and close friends. He has started to really care for her and it pained him to see her porcelain face all bruised up and he did see the fear her eyes held when someone mentioned Marluxia's name.

He knew that a phone call with Seifer would ease his mind since his best friend usually knew what to say at times like these. Usually though, not all the time.

"What a jackass! I mean hitting a girl? A minor at that? I sure hope he burns in hell or something."

"Yeah, I swear if I see that purple haired freak again, I'll beat him up so bad and make sure it's much more worse for him."

"Yeah man, same here! That chickenwuss is going down! Did anything else happen?"

Riku told Seifer about him meeting Cloud's older brother and Seifer whistled. "So there are two of them? That sucks. Is he exactly like his brother?"

"He's worse! He's spending the night at Namine's house because his best friend is Axel's brother. But he kept hitting on her and I really do not trust him. Plus, he's a jerk!"

Riku heard Seifer laugh through the other line and he wondered what was so funny. He heard Seifer laugh even louder and silently swore when he realized that he had accidentally said that out loud.

"Do I sense some jealousy?"

Riku immediately stuttered and tried to make sure that his voice sounded as neutral as possible when he replied with "Of course not! It's just…he's way to old for her! I mean he looked like he was in his mid 20s or something!"

"Right…"

"I'm serious!"

"Alright, alright. I'm just messing with you Riku. But I'm going to give you some advice. You better make a move soon or else she might be taken by someone else."

"I don't like her like that!"

"Even Madam Malefecent can notice you like her, chickenwuss."

"You're a chickenwuss!"

"Ooh nice comeback!"

"You're a jerk, you know that."

"But I'm an awesome jerk! Well I have to go, my mom is yelling at me to go do some chores, which I doubt I will do. I'll see you tomorrow and hopefully by tomorrow you get your driver's license."

Riku had completely forgotten about his driver's test. With all the chaos and fun times he was having it had slipped his mind.

"Thanks for reminding me, I'll do fine and hopefully once I get my license, I'll get my motorcycle license."

"Yeah keep dreaming, lamer. Anyway, bye."

"Bye."

Riku tossed his cell phone to his bed and then laid down on it. He stared at his ceiling and he was wondering if maybe what Seifer had said was right. Maybe he did like Namine that way. It was weird how she became one of his closest friends in such a short period of time. He knew he could trust her though and he knew that she was a wonderful girl. But the question is did Namine like him? Maybe she did? Riku growled and without even changing into his PJs he turned to his side and tried to fall asleep. The last thing he thought about before falling asleep were the words that Seifer had told him.

_But I'm going to give you some advice. You better make a move soon or else she might be taken by someone else._

* * *

Roxas, Namine, Axel, Reno, and Zack were all around the living room for different reasons. First of all, Namine was not tired at all and the fact that she wasn't going to school the next day made her want to stay up late even more. However, Roxas and Axel being the very overprotective men they are, did not want to leave her alone with Reno and Zack since Reno was crazy and they didn't know what Zack's intentions were.

Reno wasn't tired at all and was very amused that Roxas and Axel weren't going to sleep either. Zack was beginning to grow tired but he wanted to see a scary movie before sleeping. Since movies sometimes made Namine sleepy, Roxas and Axel agreed to watch a movie and they were all currently watching a really frightening movie.

What they didn't know was that Zack and Reno were the type of people who always talked during a climatic scene.

"Don't go in the abandoned house girl! The killer is in there! Don't be brave now, you have so much to live for!" Zack said while Reno added, "I don't like her so I hope she does die. I don't want the brunette to die though, she's the only character who isn't annoying."

The said girl had just walked into an abandoned room when the killer popped out of nowhere and stabbed her repeatedly. Namine had to close her eyes on that scene since she didn't like gore that much. Now she knew she was getting absolutely no sleep tonight.

After thirty more minutes of the movie, it officially ended and Namine was grateful for that. "I hate twists! I really thought it was the butler this time but no, the director apparently hates butler since he just mysteriously disappeared." Zack complained and Reno agreed. "You guys are strange." Namine said and then giggled when they had confused looks on their faces.

"Well, I'm going to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." Namine hugged her brother, Axel, and Reno. She was going to give Zack a handshake but then Zack just pulled her into a big bear hug. "Night Nami! Keep your door open, I'll join you later."

"In your dreams loverboy!" Reno said as he laughed at his friend's childish humor. Zack would always hit on girls no matter who they were. One time when Reno was in a relationship, he kept hitting on his girlfriend but Reno knew that Zack would never try to hurt him by taking his lady. Zack was a funny guy and Reno knew how much it bugged his baby brother and Roxas that he was hitting on Namine and he was using this knowledge to his full advantage.

He noticed Roxas glaring at Zack and he was trying really hard not to grin at this. He always thought that Roxas was way too overprotective of Namine and he believed she needed to let loose.

Now that he was going to live in Twilight Town he would make sure she had a ton of fun, even if it would give her dear old big brother a heart attack.

* * *

Namine walked towards her room and once she was inside she quickly changed into a pair of sweatpants and a baggy shirt and crawled into bed. She was still reeling from the events that had happened today.

Getting hit by Marluxia was not fun at all. She believed he wouldn't hit her but when he did, she was so scared that he was going to do something to her. Luckily, she was saved and she was so glad that she got Marluxia back. Although he had threatened her afterwards, she was glad that at least for once, she wasn't letting this guy walk all over her and she felt proud of herself.

When she got home and told them what had happened, she didn't expect Riku to be as mad as he was. Sure, he didn't show it but the way he had balled his fists made her realize that he was trying to control his anger. When he was about to leave, Namine knew she had to somehow try and calm him down and the first thing she could think of was a hug, which she had given the silver haired teen.

When she had let go, she was blushing madly because of the hug and the fact that Riku had seen her blush. She felt really comfortable around him and she had never met someone who has made her blush as much as Riku.

Oh dear.

Did she have feelings for Riku?

She always blushed when he complimented her and although Riku was seen as a tough guy, she knew the real Riku, the sweet and kind Riku. Namine enjoyed his company as well and he treated her like a real friend. She had never experienced that before with people around her age since back in Destiny Islands, people would always tease her and make her feel really self-conscious.

Honestly, she wasn't sure what she was feeling for Riku. She was confused but she wasn't sure how to approach him about it or anything. Maybe a talk with Kairi could lighten the situation?

She sure hoped that Kairi gave good boy advice.

With that last thought in her mind, Namine snuggled into her blanket and completely forgot about the scary movie and the events of the day as she went to sleep and hoped that tomorrow would be a better day.

* * *

A/N: Hopefully you guys enjoyed this action packed chapter! It's not as long as the others but I did work hard on it and it was fun to write even if I did have to pull an all nighter. Sorry for any spelling mistakes! Oh well, sleep is calling my name so please update and a very special shout out to LarkaSpirit, HotFudge5000, and blitzburn for their great reviews! You guys motivated me to update this chapter fast! I hope you guys aren't disappointed with this.

Review!

Thank You! :D


	8. Ask Her!

**New Beginnings**

AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?

A/N: Hey everybody! I'm glad you guys enjoyed chapter 7! I love writing Zack and Reno's characters haha its really fun! Anywhoo, this will be my last update for about a few weeks since I'll be gone during the week of my birthday (July 11!) I'm going to Disneyland! Wooo!!! It should be exciting since I'm still a big kid at heart haha. Anywhoo, here is chapter 8! Thank you for all your reviews and giving me positive feedback.

Here is chapter 8!

* * *

**Chapter 8: Ask Her!**

Namine woke up feeling strangely refreshed and with a dull throbbing on her cheek the next morning. She checked her cell phone and panicked when she saw that it was 12:30pm but sighed with relief when she remembered that Roxas gave her the day off today from school.

She got up from her bed and stretched lazily and then decided to see what was for breakfast. She opened her door and was rubbing her eyes when she saw two figures in front of the TV playing with Axel's Wii gaming system. They were currently playing one of Namine's favorite games, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

She noticed that Reno had chosen Wario while Zack was using Captain Falcon. She then saw Wario kick Captain Falcon hard and then he flew in the background, earning Wario a point. She heard Reno laugh at this, which made Zack scowl at him.

"Dude, I so kicked your ass there! Don't be jealous."

"You're going down red!"

"I know you are but what am I?"

"Fat."

"I'm not fat! Your fat!"

"Whatever Zacky."

Namine silently giggled at Reno and Zack's attempts to diss one another and then she quietly made her way to the kitchen where she saw her brother and Axel leaning on the counter.

"Hey guys!"

Roxas smiled while Axel grinned and said, "Sleeping beauty has officially woken up. Welcome back to the world of the living." Namine laughed and her made her way to the refrigerator to see if there was any food but she jumped when she heard a crash behind her.

She turned when to see what the commotion was about but all she saw where the two people who were playing video games rubbing their heads. From what Namine could tell, Reno and Zack had both rushed into the kitchen and they had squeezed through the kitchen door and somehow they had both tripped over one another.

"Ow, ow, ow my head!"

"It's the only valuable thing you have, Reno."

"Touché."

"Are you sure you guys are 23? I can't believe I'm saying this but even Axel acts older than you."

Roxas had his arms crossed and was glaring at the pair that was sprawled on the floor. He could tolerate Reno since he's been tolerating him ever since kindergarten but the new guy Zack was annoying him. Roxas didn't know him too well and wasn't sure if he could trust him. Plus the fact that he kept hitting on his sister didn't ease his worries either.

"Hey! I choose to have fun instead of being an adult!" Axel said and he stuck out his tongue at Roxas. Namine giggled at Axel and then she grabbed a bowl and milk to make herself some cereal.

"Eat the Lucky Charms cereal! It's the best man!"

Zack had gotten up and was next to Namine instantly holding the Lucky Charms box. Namine nodded and went to sit at the table and Zack followed her. She poured the Lucky Charms cereal in her bowl and started eating. She then noticed Zack grinning at her and she gave him a curious glance. Zack's grin widened and then he said, "If I can make you eat the cereal I chose for you, imagine what else I can make you do."

Reno laughed and Namine just hit him in the arm and continued to enjoy her delicious cereal. Axel and Roxas on the other hand, gave each other a stare that said to watch out for this Zack character. Roxas got up from the counter and went to the freezer to take out an ice pack. He then walked over to Namine and handed her the ice pack.

"Since I'm an expert in bruises this should definitely calm the pain down and make the bruise less visible."

"Thanks Roxas."

Namine grabbed the ice pack from her brother and put it on her cheek. The coolness from the ice pack made the throbbing in her check lessen and feel better. "You have to thank the guy who made ice packs. Those have saved my life numerous times." Reno said as he grabbed a glass of water and also sat in one of the chairs that surrounded the dining table.

"You got that right. I mean one time, I was fighting with Cloud because he stole the remote control and that punk punched me in eye, which left me with a big shiner. However, I got an ice pack, which calmed the pain down. At least I got the remote back though." Zack said as he took Reno's cup and drank its contents. Reno grabbed a napkin, crumpled it up, and threw it at his friend who easily dodged it.

"So you and Cloud don't get along?" Namine asked Zack while he replied with, "We get along great but like most siblings we argue a lot but it's over little things. Plus, I think it also helps that since we don't see each other all the time and don't live together that makes us get along just peachy."

"Why don't you guys live together?" Namine asked but quickly realized that was a personal question. "You don't have to answer that! I'm sorry I said that I-" She was cut off by Zack waving his arm and saying, "Wow slow down blondie! That's not personal at all! You see, our parents divorced when I was 11 and Cloud was 6, our parents got a divorce and my dad got custody of Cloud while my mom got custody of me and she moved to Destiny Islands since as I quote her 'I don't want to see the worst 14 years of my life walking around ever again' and end quote. They hate each other now but they still let Cloud and I talk every now and then."

"Wait, you lived in Destiny Islands?"

Everyone turned and saw Roxas staring at Zack as if he had just said that he was pregnant and Axel was the father. "I did yes, Reno told me how obnoxious brats would always hang out at his house so Reno spent most of his time at my house. I saw you guys around but I never met you."

"This is a small world after all, isn't it?"

Roxas glared at Reno who was clearly enjoying the fact that Zack was getting under his brother's and Roxas's skin. "So how long are you going to stay here for Reno?" Axel asked trying to ease the tension between his best friend and older brother.

"Well, I've actually been keeping a surprise from you. You are going to love it!"

"I'm afraid to ask."

"See, do you remember in Destiny Islands when we barely hung out? I mean you were always with blondie and blondie jr over here (when he said this both Roxas and Namine glared at him but Reno brushed it off) and you never had time for your big brother. We only bugged each other but never had some quality bonding family time and all that jazz. So, being the greatest brother I am, I have decided to follow you here and spend lots of quality time together. What I'm trying to say is, I'm moving to Twilight Town! I got a job here courtesy of Rude, all I have to do is find a place to call home and Zacky over there is going to be my roommate!"

"WHAT!"

All turned to see the younger redhead who for the first time ever, was left speechless. "Surprise! Aren't you excited that I'll be around even more? Mom and Dad are thrilled that I'm moving and I'm finally out of their hair. I always knew you were their favorite, Axel."

Axel looked at his brother and said, "Why are you moving HERE?" "Do I need to repeat myself? I told you that I got a job offer from Rude; you know the guy whose one of my closest friends and is a CEO to a company? He gave me a job as a pilot and I'm not stupid, so of course I took it! You should be happy that I'm going to be living here, Ax!"

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack? It would have been better if you told me like at least a month in advance about this job offer. You're always keeping stuff from me!" "I am not! I just like to surprise people that's all."

"Yeah, well those surprises aren't fun at times. When I think of surprises, I want to think of maybe a birthday party and not about you crashing at my place whenever you want too."

Reno got up from his chair and walked towards Axel and stood in front of him. "Okay, maybe my surprises are a bit too much but I know you love them. Without them, your life would be dull and lifeless. I just bring some spice into it."

Axel sighed and looked at his older brother and said, "Sometimes you are a pain in the ass but at the end of the day you are my brother, so I'm happy that you are moving here." Reno smiled and went to hug his brother which earned an 'aw' from Zack and Namine and a smile from Roxas.

Reno let go of his brother and said, "So, now that we got all that mushy stuff out of the way, who wants to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl?"

* * *

"Guess who got their license?"

"No way! For real?"

Riku smirked at Seifer as he tossed his license at him and sat down next to him. It was lunchtime at Hollow Bastion and Riku had just gotten back from taking his test. After succeeding, he made sure to bring some nice fast food to celebrate his achievement. He also brought some for Seifer since he knew that if he didn't, Seifer would just steal his food. Vivi, Rai, and Fuu were also around the table but they never bothered to steal Riku's food and chose to eat their own food.

"Nice, Riku. I'm actually surprised your picture came out well, a lot of the times the pictures in licenses suck." Riku snatched his license back and grabbed the bag filled with the fast food. He gave a burger to Seifer and took out another burger for himself and started eating it. "Where is Namine?" he asked when he noticed that the blonde was not present at the lunch table.

"Not here." Fuu said and Rai replied with, "I'm not sure. She didn't show up today, probably because she's sick, y'know?" Riku gave Seifer a knowing look since they both believed it was because of what happened yesterday that the blonde was absent for today.

"Maybe a visit from Romeo will make her feel better." Seifer said as he wiggled his eyebrows at his friend. Riku rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever" and then Seifer retorted with "At least I have the balls to ask girls I like out." Vivi laughed while Fuu smirked and Rai high fived Seifer.

"At least I have gotten more action than you, Almasy." "Yeah, keep dreaming Nomura." The guys then burst out laughing since no matter how hard they tried, they could never truly be mad at each other.

Rai had decided to get up from the lunch table to get another helping of today's special and asked if anyone wanted to accompany him. Vivi happily agreed to go with him while Fuu just got up and left, probably to go to the library and read a novel that she hasn't finished. Fuu loved to read which was why she was in a very advanced English class. Although, the girl barely spoke, her writing was truly a piece of art.

When Seifer saw that the coast was clear he said, "But seriously Riku, you should ask her out on a date! Or better yet, skip detention and take her out to eat today. After what has happened her, Namine deserves a day out."

Riku sighed and said, "I guess you are right. But it's not like a date-date. I'm just taking her out to eat, that's all." "But, you want it to be a date though, right?"

"So you really want to date Namine, huh?"

Seifer and Riku turned and saw two of their least favorite people smirking at them. "Didn't your mom teach you to not butt in on other's conversations?" Seifer sneered but the duo just ignored him. Riku smirked and said, "So Cloudy, I met your older brother last night. He's quite a character and I heard about the bar brawl you guys had."

"It was pretty fun brawl if you ask me. I think they got what they deserved but I think they deserve a bit more pain since they hit Namine." Cloud said and Leon nodded. "Anyway, the reason we came here was to see if you guys knew how Namine was doing. The purple haired bastard left a pretty bad bruise on her."

"Well, Riku wants to take her out to eat to make her feel better but he's too much of a chicken to go through with it." Seifer said and Riku glared at his friend. "You know it's pretty obvious that you like her." Leon said to Riku. "Does everybody in this school care about my relationships?" Riku said which made Seifer laugh.

"It's only obvious to the people that know you and Leon and Cloud pay a lot of attention to other's emotions I guess." Seifer said. "I think you should take her out." Three heads stared at the normally stoic brunette who had his arms crossed and was staring at Riku.

"Uh…what?" Riku said, confused on why his arch-nemesis was telling him to take Namine out. Cloud, who noticed that his friend wasn't going to reply said, "Take her out, she deserves it. Namine is a nice girl but hurt her and I'll break your knees."

With that, Leon and Cloud walked away when Rai and Vivi came back. "Okay, what where Cloud and Squall doing here, y'know?" Rai asked as he started eating his second lunch. "Honestly, I'm not sure." Riku said as he stared at the seniors retreating forms.

"They were just being their stupid selves as always. Bragging about being better at blitzball and stuff." Seifer said as he made up an excuse so Rai wouldn't get too suspicious since Riku wasn't right in the mind at the moment.

One thought did cross their minds as they stared at Cloud and Leon though.

_Did we just have a normal conversation without trying to kill each other?_

* * *

_  
_

"BURN BABY BURN!"

"What, no fair! You cheater!"

"Look whose talking!"

"DIEEEE!!"

Zack, Roxas, Reno, and Axel were currently playing another round of Super Smash Bros. Brawl because there wasn't anything to do that day. Namine was sitting on the couch and was watching them play. Since the Wii is only for four players, the loser would give their controller to the other person who wasn't playing and kept repeating that process. She noticed however, that whenever she was playing, the boys would be nice but if it were all the boys playing they would yell and scream and call each other names. She found it entertaining because the boys were being serious about the name-calling.

Boys were weird.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she felt her cell phone vibrate and she pulled it out of her pocket. She flipped it open and saw that she had one new text message and it was from Riku.

_How are you doing?_

Namine smiled and quickly replied with _I'm doing fine, I'm just a bit sore but other than that I'm okay. How about you? How was English?_

A few seconds later, Namine felt her phone vibrate and she opened her cell phone.

_Actually, I just got to school. I took my driver's license test today and I don't mean to brag but I did amazing. Didn't get any mistakes and now I can legally drive around here. Twilight Town won't know what hit it!_

Namine cheered silently for Riku getting his license. During class instead of talking about the given assignment, they would talk about other things and one of those things was Riku worrying about getting his license. He told her that he really didn't have anyone to practice with since his Dad was always busy and his brother didn't want anything to do with him. So he taught himself how to drive and also one of his father's co-workers, (he didn't say a name though) made him a deal. He would teach him how to drive if he would pay him since he was saving up to buy a new sitar.

The deal worked and Riku felt like he was a good driver but he wasn't sure if that would be enough to impress the person who was going to pass or fail him. Namine had a feeling that Riku would definitely pass and she tried to cheer him up which did help and Riku told her that he really appreciated her efforts in cheering him up.

_Congrats! I knew you could do it! I wish I could get my license but Roxas will probably kill me before I can get it. He wants me to wait until I'm 18 to get it. I'm so happy for you!_

"Nami, who you texting?"

Namine closed her phone and saw Roxas staring at her and waiting for an answer. Before she replied however, Zack opened his big mouth and said, "Her boyfriend of course! The one who is standing in our way of our true love. That silver haired dude, correct?"

"He's not my boyfriend! He's my friend!" Namine said while giving Zack a glare. She didn't want Roxas to kill Riku. Back in Destiny Islands, when Namine was a freshmen and Roxas a senior, there was a rumor floating around that one of the junior boys was crushing on Namine. Roxas, upon hearing this beat the poor boy up and he never spoke to Namine again, which made her mad because Roxas had no right to do that and upset because she lost one of her only friends at the school.

Roxas gave Namine a look and she said, "I'm serious! He's just a friend, don't worry about it!" Roxas was still a bit weary when it came to Riku and he wasn't blind like his brother was at times. He had a feeling that Riku was developing feelings for Namine and vice versa but he didn't want his sister to get hurt. What if Riku was just using her? What if he just wanted one thing and after he got that one thing he left? He would be damned if he let this _kid_ hurt his sister.

Axel noticed his best friend's face and saw that he was thinking deeply about this Riku guy. From what Axel could tell, he seemed like a good guy but he didn't want Namine to date him. He looked the part of the bad boy and Axel did not want a bad boy dating Namine. Axel decided that he was tired of the awkwardness after it went on for another minute and he wanted to relieve the tension. He did the only thing he could think of in a short amount of time.

He threw his remote control at Roxas's head.

Direct hit.

"What the hell?"

Roxas glared at Axel as he rubbed the area where the remote had hit him. "Oh man, that was great!" Reno said as he started laughing at what had just happened. However he stopped when he felt a remote control hit his head. He turned to see who the culprit was and saw Zack looking at him innocently.

"What? It looked like fun."

* * *

Riku stared at the text that he had just gotten from Namine. He was in his History class watching a movie about a war. He wasn't sure which war it was but all he knew was that this movie had made almost half of the class fall asleep. Even the teacher himself was trying very hard to keep his eyes open. He wished he were Fuu at the moment. Fuu was not in their history class because she had decided to take another English course instead of History since she was bad at it.

Tidus and Wakka were one of the first people to fall asleep so Seifer being the generous friend he was drew on their faces and the two were now sporting doodles and unibrows on their faces. Seifer had even asked Vivi to take a picture of them so he could post it online for the world to see.

That is why Riku never slept in a class he had with Seifer.

Speaking of Seifer, he was now drawing on Rai's face since he had just fallen asleep. He stopped when he saw Riku staring at his cell phone. "Okay dude, seriously. If you don't ask her out to eat or something today, I will. I have a thing for blondes so I'm perfectly happy with taking Namine out if you won't."

Riku glared at his friend and said, "I doubt she would go out with you, I mean your not exactly her type." Seifer raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh so you know her type? Is it a tall, muscular boy with silver hair and aquamarine eyes?"

"Maybe it is!"

"Aha! So you do like her!" Seifer grinned because he felt accomplished that he made his friend sort of admit his feelings for Namine. Seifer took Riku's silence as a yes that he did, in fact like Namine.

"Okay, so maybe I do, but she's different than the other girls! She's not obnoxious or superficial; she's actually pure and genuine. I don't want to screw things up with her and I wouldn't know where to take her out!"

"Why don't you take her out to eat and then take her for a walk in the park? It's not like a date but it will be good for you guys to get to know each other better and hopefully sparks will fly."

Seifer and Riku both looked at Vivi who was staring at the table. Vivi barely spoke so it was a surprise to hear him say something that would benefit Riku's maybe soon to be relationship with Namine.

"Vivi, you are a genius! That's a smart man right there! How many dates have you been in?" Seifer said but Vivi remained quiet. Vivi was really shy and he always had difficulty talking to girls. The only girl he really talked to was Fuu and now Namine and he was always scared of what would happen if he did ask a girl out.

"Don't worry Viv, you will find someone and we will help you." Riku said and that made Vivi cheer up slightly. Vivi's parents were never really around so he cherished his friends greatly and was glad that they let him be part of their circle.

"Alright, enough of this mushy stuff! Vivi, help me draw a clown face on Rai. I think it will look great on him." Vivi grabbed a marker that Seifer had tossed and both were now drawing on Rai's face.

Riku went back to his phone and was thinking about what Seifer and Vivi had said. Maybe taking a chance wouldn't be so bad? _Now or never,_ Riku he told himself and texted Namine.

* * *

Namine heard her cellphone vibrate once more and she pulled it out while the boys were busy playing their game. What it said though shocked her but made her feel fuzzy inside.

_Yeah thanks. Hey, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to eat out later today? My treat. I'll pick you up after school if you'd like since I'm not going to detention haha. But let me change cause I don't think you'd want to hang out with someone who's wearing their school uniform. It will just be you and me. So what do you say?_

Riku was asking her out to eat? Perhaps on a date?

Namine wasn't sure how to answer this because of four things. One, if this was a date then she would do horribly because she had never been on a date. Two, what if she messed things up and Riku didn't want anything to do with her? Three, what is Riku was just asking her out to eat as friends and nothing more?

Last but certainly not least the fourth reason, Roxas.

She knew for a fact that Roxas would automatically say no and then lock her in her room forever until she was 80. Okay, Namine was exaggerating a bit but it could be true! She sighed when she knew that there was no way that Roxas would let her hang out with Riku, even if her life depended on it.

Or was there a way?

Namine stared at the text still unsure of what to reply but the more she looked at it, the more she remembered past memories with Riku and how much fun she had with him. He had helped her in more ways than one to break out of her shell and she really wanted to see him again.

With her mind made up and without even knowing what she was doing she wrote Riku a text. She read it and had her finger on the send button since she wasn't sure how she was going to do this. She was going to get in so much trouble if she was caught.

But what was life if you didn't take any chances once in a while?

With that she pushed the sent button and silently cheered at what she had done. Now, she was panicking on how this was all going to work. How was she going to leave the apartment without saying whom she was going out with and what she was going to do?

A brilliant idea popped into her mind, which shocked her because she had never gone behind Roxas's back but she felt like this one time, it would be okay. She needed help though in order to pull this off.

She knew just who to call.

* * *

Sora sighed as he was putting new items on the shelves at _Mickey's Keys and Antiques_. The usually chirpy boy was gloomy today and the other co-worker noticed the change in his demeanor and decided to talk to him about it.

"Hey Sora, what's got you down in the dumps?" Ven said as he went up to Sora and helped him with putting the new items in their places. Sora plastered a fake smile on his face and said, "Nothing is wrong Ven, and I'm just tired. I didn't get enough sleep last night."

"Okay, that excuse might work on Terra but not on me. Now spill Sora!" Ven said. Sora looked at Ven and gave up his fight and said, "Well, I want to ask a someone a question but I don't know how the person I will ask it too will respond."

Ven gave Sora his absolute attention as Sora continued with what he was going to say. Sora sighed again and reached into his pocket and he pulled out a small box. He then opened it and inside the box lay a beautiful diamond encrusted ring. Ven looked at the ring and then did a double take.

"Is that a wedding ring?!"

Sora nodded and said, "I want to ask Kairi to marry me."

"Aw congratulations! Even though I haven't known you all your life I can tell that you and Kairi are meant to be."

"But what if she says no."

"Why would Kairi say no? She loves you with all her heart, even me, Terra, and Aqua can see that. It's sickening sometimes how lovesick you guys are."

"Still, I mean what if she doesn't want to be with me? What if she gets tired of the same thing everyday and leaves me? I love her, Ven but what if she says no. I'm scared to ask her, I bought the ring a few months ago and whenever I have the opportunity to ask her, I freak out."

Ven stared at his friend; he had never seen Sora so worked up over something that he knew shouldn't be a problem. When he had first seen Sora and Kairi together, he knew that these two were destined to be together. While Kairi was feisty, a social butterfly, and sweet, Sora was kind, generous and happy-go-lucky and they both sort of balanced each other out. He knew everybody thought they were cute and that they would last forever (even though that did sound corny).

"Dude, Sora. Kairi loves you and you love Kairi. I bet you my right lung that she will say yes. I think what you should be worried about is the future bridezilla that Kairi will become while planning her wedding. But on a serious note, take a chance and ask her, you won't regret it trust me."

Sora looked at Ven and smiled at him. His words did calm him down but he still felt nervous about it. Sora knew that Kairi was the girl for him. "Thanks Ven. That really helped a lot."

Ven smirked at him and said, "No problem. I'm here to help. Now let's finish setting up the items and then go for a lunch. My treat." Sora's face brightened up like a kid who was told that he was going to have a chocolate bar. "So I can get anything I want?"

Ven mentally smacked himself since he completely forgot about Sora's never ending appetite and silently prayed that he wouldn't waste a month's worth of salary paying just for Sora's plate alone.

* * *

"So you actually do have some balls!"

Riku hit Seifer on the head with his math book as he had just told Seifer that he had asked Namine to hang out with him after school. The two were currently in Study Hall and as luck would have it, Cid decided he needed some 'Cid Time' so in place of him was an elderly woman substituting. This would work out great because substitutes at Hollow Bastion never really care if you show up for detention or not so Riku could easily ditch and hang out with Namine.

"Where you going to take her?"

"I don't know. She hasn't replied yet. Maybe she can't go? I mean her brother might have banned her from ever seeing me again or something."

Just as Seifer was about to reply, Riku felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket and he pulled it out. It was a text from Namine and he read it. He beamed and his smile widened and when Seifer saw this, he smiled as well.

"What did she say?"

"See for yourself!"

Riku showed Seifer the text he received from Namine, which said the following:

_That sounds great! I'm really looking forward to it! Text me when you get here. Thanks for inviting me Riku!_

"Aw, how cute lover boy is going on a date."

Riku and Seifer turned and saw Leon and Cloud were leaning behind them and had just read Namine's text message to Riku. "You know Namine is a great person and all but I think her taste in guys could improve. I'm surprised she said yes to you."

"Watch it, Strife."

"What are you going to do about it, Nomura?"

Riku was about to get up but Seifer held him back while Leon held back Cloud. Leon then let go of Cloud and the two gave them a glare before walking away.

"Just ignore Strife. We can get him back later; right now let's focus on your _romantic _evening tonight with your future girlfriend. Do you know where you are going to take her?"

"I'm not sure actually. Vivi, since you truly are Dr. Love here where would you suggest to take a girl out?"

Vivi looked up from his math book and thought for a second. "How about that new place that just opened last month? Kingdom Hearts? I hear they have cuisine from various places around the world."

"Yeah! I heard the food is great there y'know?"

"Seems nice."

"Alrighty then!"

Riku was about to say something else but the bell rang and he knew he had to leave class right away in order to avoid detention. He waved at them and before they were able to stop him he left class and went straight to the parking lot.

He was so glad he had a car and a license now. His dad bought him a car on his seventeenth birthday, which was the day he got his permit. His dad had gotten him a silver camaro that he had bought from Xigbar, the other co-founder of Organization XIII. Riku loved his car and he made sure to keep it in tiptop shape even though he hadn't gotten his license yet.

Riku got in the driver's seat and put his backpack in the passenger's seat. He turned on the ignition and looked for a good radio station. After playing with the radio for a while he finally found a good song and then he looked behind and pulled out of the parking lot. Just because Riku had a nice banging car didn't mean that he was going to trash it. He wasn't a speed demon either, only when he was really late or when he felt like it.

After a few minutes, he finally got out of the student parking lot and he made his way towards his home. While driving he kept thinking about how this evening would go. He was glad he had asked Namine to eat but he was nervous. He just hoped that everything worked out for the best.

_Just be cool, calm and collected Riku._

Easier said than done.

Riku made a right turn into the neighborhood he lived in and he drove for a few minutes until he had to turn another right into his house. Well actually, more like a mansion. His dad had designed and built the house with a few of his co-workers when Riku was 10 and Sephiroth was 15. It was really big but that was because his father loved to flaunt the fact that he had the money to live in this house. Sephiroth shared that same interest with his father since he would brag to his friends about the money he had in his bank account.

Riku grabbed his backpack and walked inside the mansion and put his keys and wallet on the table and then went straight to his room. His room was a big mess and he was too lazy to clean it. Clothes were sprawled everywhere, games laid scattered in his desk along with papers and pencils since that is what where he did his homework. He unbuttoned his school shirt and went to his closet to see what he would wear.

He finally found what to wear and he laid it on his messy bed. He had decided to wear some blue jeans with a studded black belt; a black zipped up shirt with a white, blue and yellow vest, and a pair of tennis shoes. (A/N: Same outfit he wore in KH2).

Satisfied with what he was wearing he quickly brushed his teeth and then grabbed his wallet and keys that he had left in the table, he went outside and into his car. He took a deep breath before starting the ignition again and driving off. Since Roxas and Axel had taken him to their apartment yesterday, he sort of remembered where she lived.

The closer he got there, the more nervous yet happy he was becoming.

_Ready or not, here I come Namine._

* * *

_  
_

"Hi, welcome to Chocobo Boutique! Our shirts are 50% off today!"

Kairi was greeting the customers that walked in at the boutique that she worked at while folding clothes that customers were too lazy to fold back. She liked her job it was cool and laid back and Selphie and Yuffie worked here with her. It also paid a decent salary and she got discounts on everything so she couldn't complain.

She had just finished folding the clothes when she heard her cell phone ring and while making sure her boss wasn't around, she picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Kairi! I really need your help!"

"Namine?!"

Kairi heard her younger friend sigh but before she could say anything else Kairi told her to hold on while she went to go see the manager so she could take her break. After it was cleared with the manager Kairi ran out of the store and sat outside in a bench.

"Okay Nami! What's up? Why do you sound like you did something wrong?"

Namine heard what her friend said but she wasn't sure how to tell her what she was thinking of doing. After receiving Riku's text and replying yes she had gone to the bathroom and that is where she was hiding at the moment. She knew that someone would try and barge into her room so she knew the bathroom was the safest place for this conversation.

"Well, I have some good but bad news. Which would you like to hear first?"

"The good news of course, Nami!"

Namine took a deep breath and then she said, "I got a text from Riku and he asked me out to eat with him today." Namine heard her friend squeal and she had to move her phone away from her ear since Kairi was very loud.

"Oh my gosh Nami! That is so cute! And it's your first date as well! Did you say yes? Of course you did, you'd be crazy if you didn't! It's obvious you like him and I can tell he digs you!"

"I told Riku that I would go with him but I haven't told Roxas about it and you know I love you like a sister right?"

"Yeah…"

"I know that if I tell Roxas, he's not going to let me go and like you have told me many times, I should take chances and I'm taking one now but I need your help! Can you cover for me? Like call Roxas and tell him that we are going to out to eat dinner and just pretend that I'm with you! Please, please, please Kairi?"

"Ooh! Little miss goody two shoes, asking me to help her deceive her brother in order to see her love? This is better than those soap operas that Sora and I watch. Don't tell your brother I said that! I'm definitely going to help you! You deserve some loving but wear protection!"

"_Kairi!"_

"I'm just kidding! Anyway, of course I'll cover for you. So what's your plan?"

"Okay, I told Riku to text me when he was here. When we hang up, call Roxas and tell him that we are hanging out today. So when I get that text from Riku I will text you and I want you to call Roxas to tell him that you are outside but don't want to go upstairs, just make up an excuse or something. Then I'll go with Riku and I think we are all set with that. Just make sure that if Roxas calls you to tell him that I'm in the bathroom or something like that."

"Are you sure you haven't done this before?"

"I'm pretty sure I haven't. I'm so nervous but thank you so much Kairi! This means a lot to me!"

"No problem Namine! I'm excited for you! You have to give me all the details of your date! Just remember to be calm and be yourself and you will be fine!"

"Aw thanks Kai. Just one more question. What should I wear? He didn't say where we are going but I don't know what to wear and you are good at these things!"

Kairi pondered for a while and was remembering what Namine had in her closet. She didn't have that many clothes unlike Kairi whose closet was about to explode. All of a sudden she remembered an outfit that she had bought Namine for her sixteenth birthday.

"Nami! Do you still have that white dress and those baby blue sandals I got you for your birthday? That looked so cute on you and you looked great with it! Wear that!" (_A/N: Namine's outfit in KH)_

"Isn't that dress a little too short?"

"Nothing is too short Nami! Live a little! Plus, I'm sure Riku will love it!"

Namine blushed but she agreed with the redhead. She really liked the dress she had gotten for her but she only wore it when Roxas, Sora, and Axel weren't around since she knew they wouldn't like that on her.

"Okay, I will. Thanks again Kai!"

"Aw, young love! Haha, remember to text me!"

"I will!"

Namine then hung up and checked the time. She decided to take a quick shower and then fix herself up. Butterflies were fluttering in her stomach but she was extremely happy about going to dinner with Riku.

Hopefully she wouldn't make a fool out of herself and Roxas wouldn't find out about this.

* * *

Roxas was grabbing some of the chips that Reno had gotten when he heard the phone ring and he went to pick it up, wondering who it was.

"Hello?"

"Roxas!"

Oh he knew who that was all right.

"Oh hey Kairi!"

"Roxas! Can I take Namine out to eat today after work? She needs a girl's day out after what happened to her yesterday."

Roxas tried to shake the thoughts of Marluxia hurting his sister out of his mind and focused on what Kairi had said. "I guess that sounds good. At what time would you come to pick her up?"

"I'm not sure yet since I'm still at work. I'll call you when I'm outside the apartment? I already told Namine that I'd take her out to eat so she should be ready when I get there! I told her to dress up nicely! I'm going to surprise her!"

"Um okay then?"

"I'll call you when I get there! See ya!"

"Bye."

"Who was that?"

Roxas stared at Axel and then he replied, "That was Kairi. She wants to take Namine out to eat." Just as he finished saying that, Namine walked to the living room and she received a whistle from Zack.

"Well, well, well, blondie sure knows how to clean up. You look amazing, darling!"

Namine blushed and sat down next to Reno who said, "You look great, Nami!" Axel and Roxas had no idea what to say. Although she did look stunning, the white dress was a bit too short for their taste.

"Are you sure you want to wear that Namine?"

Namine looked at her brother and Axel and she knew that they were not going to agree with her outfit. However, she thought she looked good and she didn't want to change again. "I think it looks good."

"Damn right it does!"

Roxas glared at Zack who was still checking out his sister. Axel went up to Zack and just hit his head. "Hey! Watch the hair man!"

Namine heard her cell phone ring inside her purse and she took it out. She had just received a text from Riku.

_I'm outside._

"Who was that?"

Namine looked up at Roxas and said, "It was Kairi, and she said she's a few minutes away from the apartment." Roxas nodded and stared at his phone, waiting for Kairi to call him like she said she would.

When Roxas looked at his phone Namine quickly texted Kairi to call Roxas because Riku was here. As Namine waited for Kairi to call, she started fidgeting because she was so nervous over this supposed date and she was hoping that Roxas wouldn't find out that she had lied to him in order to go on this date. She didn't like lying but she didn't want to turn down Riku's offer.

After what seemed like an eternity, the phone rang and Roxas picked it up. A few minutes of talking, Roxas hung up and said, "Kairi is going to meet you outside. She said she doesn't want any boys coming downstairs because she wants to keep this a surprise."

Namine nervously laughed and said, "Well that's Kairi for you and I better not keep her waiting." "Ooh! Ladies night, eh? Mind if I join?" Namine stared at Zack but she shook her head and said, "Sorry Zack, your not a girl so you can't join." Reno laughed at Zack's 'sad' face after what Namine had said and Roxas and Axel joined in.

She gave the boys a hug and then she walked out towards the entrance of the apartment complex. Outside, she spotted Riku, leaning over a very expensive looking car. She blushed when she saw him because he looked very attractive with what he was wearing. She tried to compose herself before walking over to Riku. When she finally reached him he smiled and said, "You look great!"

Namine blushed but she replied with, "You don't look so bad yourself." Riku opened the passenger door for Namine and she quietly said a thank you as she got in. He then closed the door and went in the driver's seat.

"So where are we going?"

Riku smirked as he put on his sunglasses and said, "It's a surprise!" Namine smiled and said, "Ok, then! I hope it's good! I trust you!"

With that, Riku sped off towards their dining place and a thought plagued the minds of the young teens.

_I hope this all works out and I don't mess up._

* * *

_  
_

A/N: Lots of cellphone calls were made in this chapter haha. Anywhoo, I hope you guys liked this chapter, I have no idea how I got the idea of Sora proposing to Kairi I just started randomly writing and I got this chapter. Anywhoo, I'm going straight to bed right now because I'm extremely tired since I slept for only 5 hours and I worked for 10 hours with barely any breaks. I'll see you guys later and thank you for your reviews!

Review!

Thank You! :D


	9. A Date, Spies, and Invitations

**New Beginnings**

AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?

A/N: Hey everybody! I'm glad you guys enjoyed chapter 8! I'm back from my birthday trip and I had such a blast! I even used a pick up line on a waiter at Disneyland! It was funny haha. Anywhoo, I got a few presents and I got a rose from a knight so that was fun haha. Well, now that I'm back I am here to write more and I hope you guys like this chapter!

Here is chapter 9!

* * *

**Chapter 9: A Date, Spies, and Invitations**

The drive to the restaurant wasn't as awkward as Namine thought it would be. It was filled with what had happened in school today and how their own family was doing. It was putting Namine at ease and it was deteriorating the nervousness she was feeling before Riku came to pick her up.

After a few more minutes of talking, Riku turned right into a parking lot, which Namine assumed was the parking lot for the restaurant. After choosing a great spot he easily parked his car and turned off the ignition. He got out of the car and closed the door and before Namine even had a chance to open the door, he opened it for her and held out his hand to help her up. Namine grabbed his hand and couldn't help but blush as Riku helped her out of the car. Once out, she saw the bright neon sign of the restaurant's name.

Kingdom Hearts.

'_Sounds familiar'_ Namine thought but she quickly ignored it and asked Riku, "Kingdom Hearts? What kind of food do they have here?" Riku shrugged and said, "Honestly, I've never been here but what Vivi told me was that they have foods from many different worlds so there is a variety to choose from. Plus, I heard my dad has been here and he said you get to choose what room you want to eat in. All the rooms have their own unique style."

"Sounds like my type of place!" Namine said and Riku laughed as he held the door open for Namine to enter the restaurant. The restaurant was decorated elegantly and parts of it represented the worlds that the cuisine came from. For example, Namine saw a sign that said _'Atlantica'_ and the walls were painted blue and a big fish tank was in the middle of the room with multiple colorful fish swimming in it. Another sign said _'Land of the Dragons' _and that part was painted with red walls and decorated with bamboo and dragon patterns. Namine found the room named _'Halloweentown'_ amusing because it was painted black but there were Halloween masks around the walls and pumpkins with scary faces on them lighting the room.

Riku was amused by Namine's awe although he was feeling the same shock as her. Vivi was right when he said this was a great restaurant. He made a mental note to thank him later. The two of them walked around to figure out what room to eat in. Riku was thinking about eating in the _'Agrabah'_ section because it was painted brown but it had floating carpets and magical genie lamps were on the tables. The _'Olympus Colliseum'_ looked like a great room as well because it had a bronze figurine of the legendary hero, Hercules in the middle of the room and Mt. Olympus was painted on the walls. However, he decided that Namine should be the one to decide where they sit.

Namine was looking at the '_Wonderland_' section because loud bright music was being played there. Apparently in that room they only served tea and crumpets and the royal cards from playing cards were painted on the walls in that room. She wished she could sit in all of the sections at the same time but that wouldn't work. She noticed Riku was staring at '_Christmas Town'_ and was laughing at one of the workers who was dressed up as Santa Claus and was trying to get their attention. Namine could not help but stare at Riku and how good he looked when he had a smile in his face. There was just something about his smile that was infectious and she didn't even notice that a smile was forming on her face because of the silver haired boy's smile.

"So which section do you want to sit in?"

Namine was snapped out of her thoughts and saw Riku staring at her with a slight smirk on his face. Did he catch her staring at him? She hoped not. She tried to avert her gaze at the other rooms while trying to once again, hide the blush that was appearing on her face.

She was still looking around and she couldn't decide. All the rooms were unique in their own way and she wished she could just choose one already but it was so hard! She was about to make her decision when she realized she had skipped a room and when she read the name of the room, it sparked her curiosity.

_The World That Never Was._

There was something about that room that made Namine want to eat there. It was decorated differently than the other rooms. Instead of having regular, happy lighting, the roof was sparkling with shiny stars that weren't too bright but weren't too dull. What attracted Namine the most to this room was the portrait that was painted on the wall to decorate it. There was a dark city in the bottom and a castle was floating above it. However, instead of having a regular circular moon, the moon was shaped like a heart. Although it looked eerie, Namine could see a beauty from it that she believed many people would not be able to see.

"The World That Never Was? Good choice."

Namine spun around and saw Riku smiling at her. He had just whispered that in her ear and she was trying very hard to keep that darn blush that was coming up at bay. "I like the painting of the castle. It's very detailed. Are you sure you want to eat here? We could pick another room, if you'd like?" Namine asked silently praying that the blush would go away.

Riku shook his head and said, "Nope, I'm okay with this place, it's very mysterious." Namine nodded and the two walked over to the podium that was standing in front of the section where the waitress was grabbing something. When she looked up at the pair however, Namine's eyes widened.

"Rikku?"

* * *

"I'm hungry!"

"You just ate!"

"But I ate an hour ago! I need food now or I'll starve and dieeeeee!"

Reno sighed as he looked at Zack through the rear view mirror. The two had left Axel and Roxas's apartment a few minutes ago because they had gotten bored from playing with the Wii over and over again. So to amuse themselves they decided to play a game that none of them had played ever since High School.

That game consisted of flipping off and trying to make the driver's next to them so angry that they would get an intense reaction from them. Whoever got the best reaction would win. So far, Zack was ahead of Reno by two points but that was because Reno was driving so he had to pay attention to the road.

They were thinking about scaring people on the sidewalk but the last time they did that, they nearly gave an elderly woman a heart attack and whenever she saw them, she would whack them with her cane. They had given her the nickname 'The Beast' so when someone said her nickname, the duo would run away from her. But, that was in Destiny Islands so at least they didn't have to deal with her popping randomly and beating them up in Twilight Town. So because of that, Zack decided to do it anyway.

"I'm going to scare people walking on the sidewalk now, Reno. Watch in amazement as the master teaches the young padawan how to do this properly."

Reno snorted and said, "Have you been watching Star Wars again?" "Psh, of course! It's a classic bro, I mean who doesn't love Star Wars?" Reno rolled his eyes at his best friend but silently agreed with him. Zack was a Star Wars fanatic; he even dressed up as Princess Leia once…He never wanted to be reminded of that image again.

Reno stopped at a stop sign and then noticed a blonde boy walking down the sidewalk. He threw his empty water bottle at Zack in the back seat who said, "Hey! What's the deal?"

"Isn't that your brother, Cloud?"

The raven-haired boy turned and saw that it was indeed his younger brother walking on the sidewalk. Since he and Reno were still playing their little game, he decided to make Cloud his next victim. He told Reno to slow down when they reached Cloud because he was going to yell at him. Reno nodded and he slowly drove the car behind Cloud and once they were at a reasonable distance, Zack attacked.

"HEY ASSHOLE!"

Cloud immediately tensed and whipped around, about to yell at whoever yelled at him but then rolled his eyes when he saw his brother and his brother's best friend pull up next to him. "What's up Cloudy? Why are you by yourself on this fine afternoon day?"

"Well, school is over and since I stayed over Leon's house the night before he was the one who gave me a ride to school. He had to leave early though so now I'm walking home."

"Well hop on in then! Reno and I are going to grab some food. You know any good places that serve lots of goodies with hotties?"

Cloud got in the back seat next to his brother and thought about places to eat. Reno had no idea what to do so he kept driving until he stopped at a red light. He waited patiently for the light to turn green but it never did. While Cloud was thinking and Reno was waiting, Zack got bored and was making funny faces at the people next to them. He couldn't see who they were but one looked eerily familiar.

He had only met one other person with pink hair…

"Reno! Isn't that the guy who beat up Namine?"

Reno looked and sure enough, it was Marluxia who was sitting in the passenger's seat next to the blue boy who was also present in the fight. Reno glared at Marluxia for a second but then he saw a golden opportunity. "Zack, do you have anything I could throw at them? They have their window open!"

Zack quickly looked around the back seat to find something but Cloud coughed to catch both of the older guys attention and he gave Reno a textbook. A very hard and heavy textbook. "I dropped that class today because I already have way more than enough credits to graduate. Now I have a free period so I don't need that book."

Excellent.

Reno smirked and Zack grinned as he was preparing himself to see the outcome of this. Reno rolled down his window and without even saying a thing or looking at which direction to throw, he threw the heavy textbook at Marluxia.

However, since Reno didn't see where he was aiming, it missed Marluxia's head but it hit their car and Reno was hoping that it did leave a dent. Both Zack and Cloud were trying to contain their laughter because they wanted to see the pink haired man's reaction to the textbook.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Marluxia turned and glared at the people who had just thrown something heavy at the car. Reno just smirked and mock saluted them. "Hello there. Did you miss us?" That was the last straw for Zack and Cloud and they burst out laughing, which infuriated both the pink haired man and the blue haired man. Reno then saw that the light had turned green but before he left, he wanted to say some fighting words to the pair.

"That was a present from us to you about leaving that bruise on Namine. However, I love that bruise I left on you, Marly. Purple is definitely your color; you should wear it more often. I bet blue boy over there would approve. Now, I'm not going to waste my time talking to you guys anymore, so eat my dust!"

With that said, Reno hit the gas pedal and sped off, leaving Marluxia and Saix who were beyond furious behind. Reno then turned on another street because he knew that two would follow so he had to lose them. He kept making random turns and once he felt that he had lost them, he put his car on park and looked at the two siblings in the back who were dying of laughter.

"Well, thank you! I deserve an applause and an award after my amazing job back there." Reno said as he grinned at them. "Dude, that was great! No wonder you are my best friend!" Zack said as he was wiping a tear from his eye from laughing so hard. "I have to admit, that was brilliant!" Cloud said after he slightly calmed down from his laughter.

A few minutes later, the brothers had calmed down but then they heard Zack's stomach growling. "Shut up!" He said as he hit himself in his stomach, which made Cloud and Reno sweat drop. "Okay, then. So Cloud did you think of any places to eat at? Remember, they have to serve lots of food!"

"Well, there's a new place that recently opened around here, I think it's called Kingdom Hearts? Leon took Aerith there and he said they serve lots of food and its good too, plus one of my friend's work there so she might give us a discount? I know where it is, I'll just point to where you have to turn and stuff."

Reno and Zack looked at one another not because of the food part, but because of the discount part. They loved discounts, both admitted beforehand that they were pretty cheap and would let Rude pay for everything since as Zack had put it, 'he's made out of money.' Zack patted Cloud hard on the back and then looked back at Reno.

"Excellent choice bro! Quick, driver, to Kingdom Hearts!"

Reno just scowled at the nickname Zack had just given him and proceeded to go to Kingdom Hearts, without knowing that a certain blonde was there with a silver haired boy.

* * *

"So, I just got off the phone with Xemnas. He's having that annual shindig he always brags about this Saturday. The one he has every year for no apparent reason but there's lots of good food and hot babes."

Roxas looked at Axel who just sighed. He hated going to those parties but unless you had another job waiting for you, you had to show up. The last time he went, he was bored to tears listening to Xemnas talk about how good it was that his wife dumped him.

"This time it's different however. Everyone who was invited can bring one guest to the party. I was thinking since you will end up taking Olette and that Sora and Kairi have always wanted to go to one of these parties that I use my invitation to invite Sora and Larxene can invite Kairi so that way they can both be at the party since Larxene and I are already guests."

"I'm sure Sora would love that. You should ask him when he gets off work. Is it formal again?" Axel nodded and Roxas cringed. He hated formal attire, tuxedos and him never got along. "Well, at least we will actually know a lot of people at the party. This time he invited everybody from Organization XIII, so that should be fun?"

"Easy for you to say. I bet you and Demyx will probably either flood or burn the place down." Axel was about to argue with Roxas but then he paused and said, "Yeah, and your probably right. Oh well, at least I won't be the one paying for it."

Roxas laughed and then he froze when he remembered something that Axel had said. "You said that all of the Organization XIII members were invited correct?" Axel nodded and Roxas swore under his breath. If everybody was indeed invited, that only meant one thing.

Marluxia would be invited as well.

He was glad that his schedule this week involved him working on the days Marluxia had off. He wasn't sure how he was going to suppress his rage against him. He wanted to beat up Marluxia for hitting his sister but he didn't want to cause a scene. He knew that Marluxia was going to try and make him do something foolish at the party that made him look like the bad guy.

Axel immediately picked up on Roxas's mood change and knew what the blonde was thinking. He went over to his best friend and sat next to him and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Forget about Marluxia at that party Rox. Sure, what he did was wrong and I want to beat him up but we can do that later when no one is around of course. Besides, if you don't let him get to you, it will annoy him so in a way, it's a win-win situation."

"I guess your right Axel." Roxas replied after he had heard what his best friend had said. Axel laughed and then proceeded to ruffle Roxas's hair. "I'm always right, got it memorized?" "Why do you always say that? You've said that ever since we were little." Roxas grumbled as he tried to fix his spiky hair that his friend had just ruined.

"Because I'm the great Axel! A-X-E-L, commit it to memory!"

The great Axel was then met by a giant pillow hitting his face.

"Hey!" Axel said as he grabbed the pillow and threw back at Roxas who easily dodged it. "Why do I put up with you?" Roxas said but the only reply he got was Axel sticking his tongue out.

"Oh, that is so mature."

Roxas then decided to call up Kairi and check up on her and his sister. He hoped that nothing had gone wrong or they hadn't gotten jumped or anything. He knew Kairi could defend herself easily since she had taken a few self-defense classes with her friend Yuffie but he wasn't sure if she could also defend Namine. He always had to dramatize everything for some reason.

He grabbed his phone and scanned for Kairi's name. Once he found it he dialed it and waited for the auburn haired girl to pick up her phone.

* * *

Kairi had just gotten out of work and was walking to the bus stop when she felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. She quickly took it out, thinking it was Sora and said, "Hello?"

"Hey Kairi, I'm just checking up on you and Nami. Where did you take her to eat?"

Uh Oh.

_Think Kairi Think!_

Bingo!

"I took her to that one place by the mall. That fancy buffet place that has absolutely everything! After this we might go shopping though so don't expect either one of us to answer our phones if we call."

"Oh cool! Well, can I talk to Nami?"

"Um, she's in the bathroom right now but I'll tell her to call you later. Sounds fine?"

"Okay, well I'll call you later."

"Bye!"

Kairi hung up and sighed with relief. Namine better repay her with something big since she wasn't sure just how much longer she could lie to Roxas. She was a bit surprised that Roxas hadn't caught her lying because he was usually pretty good at that. Sighing she was about to walk towards the bus stop (she got a ride from Selphie to work but she had had a date so Kairi told her she was going to take the bus) when she heard a car honk. She turned to see who it was and her eyes brightened up as she saw that it was Sora in the car.

"Need a ride m'lady?"

"Why thank you kind, sir!"

Kairi got inside the car and Sora sped off towards their apartment. "So anything interesting happen today?" Kairi shook her head and said, "Nah, nothing exciting really, how about you?" The brunette shook his head but then turned to see his love and said, "Guess what?" Kairi shrugged and Sora burst into a grin.

"When I was coming over to pick you up, Axel called me and told me that we are invited to Xemnas's party! You know that huge one he has but no one except Organization XIII and rich people are ever allowed to go too?" "Really?"

"Yeah, they are both giving us a ride so it's all set. He just says to wear something nice that isn't too overly the top." Kairi nodded and then she felt something hit her leg. She looked to see what it was and smiled when she saw it. She only saw that bag once a month.

"Is today movie, games, and pizza night?"

Sora chuckled and just winked at her, answering her question with that playful wink of his. Ever since their freshmen year in high school, Kairi and Sora would have a movie, games, and pizza night every month. To this day, they still kept that tradition alive but since both have them have been busy with work and school, they hadn't done it in a while which was why Kairi was so happy.

"What movie did you rent?"

"That's for me to know and for you to find out."

"Aw, your no fun!"

Sora laughed at the pout his girlfriend was giving him and then his thoughts drifted towards the ring that was in his pocket. He knew today wasn't the right time to pop the question and he wasn't sure when it was going to be.

He knew ever since Kairi came into his life that she was the one, although he was only five years old at the time. He remembered when they first met in school and how nobody talked to her so he decided to be her first friend. They became extremely close until finally they told each other how they felt and have been blissfully happy ever since.

Even though he was only 20 (soon to be 21, mind you) he knew he was ready for marriage and spending the rest of his life with Kairi. Of course, they would probably wait until they finished college to get married and have kids but he couldn't wait to have little Sora's and Kairi's running around and driving them insane. He pictured his family living comfortably in a small home with two dogs and a duck. Kairi's favorite animal was a dog and Sora's was a duck which was why they would have those pets. The duck's name would be Donald and the two dog's names would be Pluto and Goofy. He wasn't sure why but he felt that those names would suit their pets just fine.

He finally pulled up to their parking space and he turned off the ignition. Then, the two went to their apartment and Kairi laid down on the couch while Sora went to grab the junk food and soda pop that they would eat along with the new junk food he had just purchased.

Once he set all the food on the table in the living room he popped the movie in the DVD player and sat on the couch, snuggling next to Kairi. Kairi squealed when she realized that this was going to be a 'chick flick' and she hugged Sora for letting them watch one together.

Sora stared at the girl who was laying her head on his shoulder and smiled at her with love radiating from his eyes. He would rather do this than hang out with friends or work.

He truly did love Kairi.

* * *

_Ding Dong!_

"I'll get it!"

Axel who just finished talking to Sora and was watching his friend talk to Kairi got up from his seat and went to the door. Without even looking at the peephole he opened it only to be met by a pair of arms tackling him to the ground.

"AXEL DUDE! THE ALIENS ARE COMING!"

"Get off me Demyx!"

Axel pushed the blonde boy out of the way and got up from the floor. Demyx also got up and looked frantically at Axel. "I swear dude, the aliens are here! There were two men in black outside my house and they had all these gadgets and what not and I know I've never seen those gadgets before. The invasion is upon us!"

Axel, who was also a vivid believer in aliens exclaimed, "No way! Are you sure?" Demyx nodded and said, "Those guys look exactly like a men in black is suppose to look like. They were men and they were wearing black!"

Roxas had just finished talking to Kairi and walked towards the entrance when he heard Demyx say that. He then burst out laughing at Demyx's description and said, "Wow, Demyx, you never seize to amaze me. I'm surprised how you manage to keep your job with all that crap you make up."

"But I'm being serious! This is real, no joke! We have to start making a forte so when the aliens come we will be safe from their laser beams and dissections!"

"Seriously Demyx? There are no such things as aliens. You have been watching way too many movies on your days off."

Axel and Demyx turned and saw their other co-worker and Demyx's roommate, Zexion standing by the doorway. Zexion was the complete opposite of Demyx but for some reason the two were best friends. While Demyx was loud and funny, Zexion was quiet and he liked to have intelligent conversations with other people.

"I was trying to tell Dem over here that those supposed 'men in black' are actually two salesmen selling extravagant Italian watches, but of course he didn't believe that. Since you're the only other person he knows who believes in aliens, he forced me to come with him to talk to you about his new 'discovery.'"

"Have you not been watching the History Channel? The gadgets were clearly disguised as fancy watches so nobody would be suspicious! Of course, I was able to see right through that disguise! Are those muffins?"

Demyx quickly went over to the kitchen to grab a muffin that he had somehow smelled from all the way in the front door. Zexion followed his best friend as well as Axel and Roxas and they all took a seat in the kitchen table.

Demyx was currently devouring his fourth muffin when Axel said, "Other than the alien thing, what brings you guys here?" "Oh yeah, Demyx wanted to ask you guys a favor." After Demyx finished swallowing his muffin he said, "Okay, we just wanted to know if you could give us a lift to Xemnas's party on Saturday. Roxas has the coolest car out of all of us and we, well mostly me, wants to arrive in style."

"Sure, we can give you a lift but we already promised Sora and Kairi to give them a ride. We only have one more seat available-" Roxas didn't even finish saying his sentence when Demyx yelled out "Dibs on the trunk!"

"You really want to ride on the trunk?"

"Of course! My mom would always let me ride there because she didn't want to be seen with me. It was fun though! I would yell and scream that I was being kidnapped. My mom was stopped by the cops 9 times because of that."

Axel, Zexion, and Roxas stared at Demyx funny but then they burst out laughing. "Okay, then, I'll let you ride on the trunk but only if you remain quiet and don't yell out that we have kidnapped you or something."

"Aw man, way to ruin all the fun! Speaking of fun, where's your sister, Nami-Bear?"

"Nami-Bear?"

"I don't know, I make up weird nicknames for people. Namine reminds me of a bear, but not the type that will eat you, the type that will love you, like teddy bears!"

"She's eating out with Kairi, it's like a girls day out or something."

"I'll never understand girls, man. Especially Larxene, I mean how do you put up with that Axel?"

"It's a gift."

"Is that gift called buying her everything she wants?"

"Precisely."

"Well, amen to that."

With that said all the boys continued listening to Demyx about how aliens will conquer the world and how it will end in 2012. It took all of Roxas's willpower to not burst out laughing at his friend's out of this world beliefs.

* * *

"Hey Namine, Riku! What are you guys doing here? Is this a date?"

Both Riku and Namine blushed which made Rikku squeal in delight. "This is a date! Oh how cute! I made a bet with Tifa that you would take her out on a date this month. She so owes me 20 munny now!"

Before Riku and Namine could tell her it wasn't a date, she had grabbed two menus and made a gesture for both of them to follow her. She led them to a table and Riku pulled out Namine's chair for her to sit which made Rikku smile. Once the couple was sitting, Rikku gave them the menu and said, "Welcome to the World That Never Was! Hope you enjoy your time here! Our special today is the Sacred Moon, which is a piece of chicken with the design of a heart and salad. I would recommend it, it's really good! I hope you guys love this room since this is the best room here and the most _romantic._"

Rikku winked at the two and went to go take the orders of the other people in that room. Both of the teens were blushing furiously at what the blonde haired girl had said and Namine was trying very hard to think of other things that would make her forget about what Rikku just told them. It seemed however that luck was on her side as Riku had recovered quickly from his blush and said, "So, how was your day with no school?"

Namine tilted her head and Riku thought that gesture was adorable. '_Focus Riku, Focus_' He mentally told himself and then he heard Namine say, "It was fun actually. I woke up pretty late and then I just played a few games with the boys. It was nothing special really, just the same old, same old."

"Your lucky you didn't have to go to school today, although you did miss a rather entertaining history lesson. Seifer was bored and decided to use whoever was sleeping as his canvas for his artistic spark. I'm pretty sure the pictures he took are all over the Internet by now. I feel bad for them."

Namine giggled and said, "Is that why you always try to never sleep in a class with Seifer?" Riku nodded and said, "I learned that the hard way. In middle school, he drew on me so many times and it took me a few months to realize why a lot of people laughed at me after class ended. However, I do understand why he drew on me a lot since we hated each other back then."

Namine's eyes widened and said, "Really? I thought you guys had been friends forever! How did you guys become friends?" Riku was about to reply when their waitress came over and was ready to take their order.

"So what would you guys like?"

Namine ordered today's special with a Pepsi while Riku ordered a cheeseburger and a root beer float. Rikku wrote down the orders and skipped (yes skipped) to the kitchen to deliver the order.

"Well, you see back in middle school, Seifer, Rai, Fuu and Vivi were part of what Seifer called the "Twilight Disciplinary Committee." He was a real jerk back then and would always pick on fights with the other kids who were easily scared of them. I was the loner guy; I didn't really hang out with anyone and would have rather spent time by myself. However, one time he was bullying a sixth grader so I told him to knock it off and punched him. We got into this huge fight and received detention. After that, his crew would always try and bring me down but I would rise above it, which irked Seifer to no end. Finally, when we were freshmen in high school during detention one time, he came up to me and asked me how I managed to not be scared of them. I told him that his face wasn't scary, some sarcastic reply like that, I don't really remember but we both ended up laughing our butts off. I guess, the rest is history as they say."

"Wow, I didn't expect the two of you to hate each other." The blonde exclaimed after she heard how the two became friends. "Well, I have heard that the friends you meet at weird times are the ones that last forever. So what about you? Any good friends stories?"

Namine immediately retreated into herself after what the silver haired boy had asked her. She didn't have any good friends stories since beforehand she didn't have any friends her age. She looked at Riku and bit her lip and decided that she should just tell him what she had experienced.

"I don't have any good friends stories to tell actually. See, my only friends back where I used to live where my brothers, Axel, Kairi, and Reno. I never got along with anyone my age. In Destiny Islands nobody wanted to be my friend because I was known as a witch."

"A witch?"

Namine nodded. "You see, a girl made up a rumor about me saying that I could manipulate people's memories and make them forget stuff. She was telling everybody that I was a witch and that if you got close to me that I would make you forget everybody. I'm not sure why she said that but it got to the point where people actually believed her so nobody wanted to be friends with the witch. I was picked on and teased a lot because of that. Instead of letting it get to me though, I drew out my frustrations, which I guess is why I love art now. It was my escape from the torment they used to give me. Sora, Roxas, Kairi, Axel, and Reno would defend me whenever they saw someone hurting me but most of the time they didn't know about it. "

"Well, those guys were assholes."

Namine looked at Riku and then he said, "They just treated you like dirt Nami. You are a great person, way better than most people around here. It just angers me that people can be cruel to someone who doesn't deserve it. It's not fair and now that you have friends, that Marluxia guy is trying to bring you down. But I won't let him hurt you anymore Nami."

"Riku, I-"

"You know I won't turn on you or stop being your friend, right?"

Namine stared at Riku and she could see the honesty and sincerity in them. She had been having a few doubts about the friendships she had made with other people but not the one she had with Riku. He was one of the most honest people she had ever met and she was glad he was her friend.

_Maybe even more?_

Namine quickly shook that thought out of her mind. She didn't want to lose her friendship with Riku. She wasn't sure if he felt the same way so for now, Namine decided that she would keep mum about the feelings she had for the silver haired boy.

"I know, Riku. Thank you."

Riku just smiled at her and the two were left in a comfortable silence until Rikku came to give them their food. They smiled at each other one last time and started digging into their delicious food.

* * *

"This is a pretty cool place!"

Zack and Reno had just gotten inside the restaurant and where currently checking out the decorations. "Leon wasn't kidding when he said it was a great place!" Cloud was searching for a familiar face and he spotted it immediately. "Hey Rikku!"

The blonde girl turned upon hearing her name and smiled when she saw one of her best friends. "Hey Cloud! What are you doing here?" Cloud walked up to his friend and said, "Well, my brother got hungry so we decided to come here. Leon said the food is great here so we are giving this place a shot."

Rikku was about to reply when she was interrupted by a cough. "Hello, I'm a thief and I'm here to steal your heart." Rikku started laughing as she saw a raven-haired man wink at her. Cloud on the other hand groaned and said, "Rikku, this is Reno and lover boy over there is my older brother Zack. The one that moved here that I told you guys about."

"Oh yeah! Sweetness dude! Nice to meet you both!" Rikku said as she shook hands with them. "So, table for three then?" "Well, four if you want to join in." "Zack, shut up." Rikku kept laughing but before they entered the room she said, "Oh Cloud! Guess who else is eating in this section?"

Cloud shrugged and then Rikku said, "It's Namine and Riku! Isn't that so sweet? I had a feeling that they would end up dating eventually!" Six pairs of eyes widened when the blonde waitress said that but she didn't see that as she led them to their table, which was conveniently placed near the table where Riku and Namine were sitting. "Tell me what happens during their date! You guys are my spies today!" Rikku said and she gave the trio their menu and went to go help out another customer.

"Wait a minute, didn't Namine say she was going to eat with that one girl, Kairi?" Zack said and Reno replied with, "Unless Kairi got a sex change, dyed her hair, and actually went to the gym to gain all that muscle then no, I believe that's not Kairi." "Oooh! Namine is a liar! Wait until her brothers hear about this!"

Zack then slapped Reno on the arm and said, "Dude! We aren't going to tell her brothers! That's not cool." Both Reno and Cloud looked at Zack funny but Zack in return, just grinned.

"I've got a much better idea. Do you have her number Reno?"

* * *

Namine and Riku were eating their meal when they both heard a jingle coming from Namine's purse. "Sorry." She said as she grabbed her phone to see if it was Roxas calling her. Maybe Kairi spilled the beans on hear and Roxas was angry with her? Hopefully that wasn't the case and she felt relief wash over her when it was just a text message from Reno. She checked it and then paused when she read what it said.

_Eating with Kairi, eh? Turn around and look to your left._

Namine turned and to her horror saw Cloud, Reno, and Zack looking at her from a table not too far from theirs. Cloud had a serious face while Reno and Zack were grinning and waving at her. Namine instantly paled and put her phone back in her purse and turned to Riku.

"Can you excuse me for a minute, I have to go the restroom."

Riku nodded and Namine got out of her chair and making sure that Riku wasn't watching her, she quickly made her way towards the trio. "Well, well, well, if isn't Pinocchio." Namine glared at Zack and took the available seat in the table. "What are you guys doing here?" She asked and Reno said, "We got hungry of course. Cloudy over here told us about this place and I'm pleased to say, I like it. So, how come you're with Prince Charming over there instead of Kairi?"

"His name is Riku and well, okay I'll tell you. He invited me to eat but I knew Roxas would say no so I asked Kairi to help me out while I'm with Riku. You aren't going to tell are you?" "Well, we were but Zack here says he has a better idea, so let's here it Zacky boy." Reno said as he leaned on his seat to hear what Zack's idea was.

"Okay, we won't tell your big brothers unless you do me a HUGE favor. You see, Reno and I have been invited to this huge party hosted by some random dude. I'm not sure who he is but we got connections and we got invites to this bash. Now, in our invites it says that we can bring one guest and I wasn't going too, but my dad found out about the party and said, 'well son, why don't you take your dear ol' brother with you!' So now, I have to take Cloudy here with me. The problem is, I don't want him to cramp my style when I pick up on the ladies. Since Cloud won't know anyone at this party and I'll be too busy with the girls, he will be all lonely and sad. Now, I don't want him to be sad and lonely and I was going to ask Cloud's girlfriend to go to the party but seeing this blackmail here made this situation much more interesting. So I decided that I'll take Cloud as my guest and Reno will take you as his guest and then you and Spiky can just chill and have fun at the party while Reno and I get the babes. If you go, we swear we won't tell anybody you were here with Riku, understand?"

When Zack finished his speech he was met with a redhead smirking and two blondes gaping at him. "What?! How come Dad didn't tell me about this party? And do I have to go?"

Zack rolled his eyes at his brother and said, "Of course you have to go! I'm already on Dad's bad side and I know that if I don't bring you, he's going to kill me. Besides, you'll have fun since Namine will be there with you. It's not a date either; it's just two friends hanging out at some random party where you don't know anyone. That's normal right?"

"Only normal for you, _Fair."_ Cloud said. Cloud would only call his older brother by his last name if he was really mad at him but Zack knew that his brother could never stay an hour mad at him so he just grinned at him. "Spiky, pleaasssee! Do this for me! If you do this, I don't care what it is but I'll give you anything, you name it!" "Give me your XBOX 360 then."

"Whaaat? No way! I worked my ass off to buy that, no way bro!" "You said anything, Zack." Zack cursed himself and said, "Alright, you can have it! Do we have a deal?" Cloud looked at the younger blonde and said, "Only if Namine is okay with it, I'm down and besides I think if you take me, Dad will probably like you more and you don't have to run away from him every other week."

Namine stared back and forth at Zack and Cloud. She wasn't a partygoer but she didn't want to leave Cloud alone nor did she want Zack to spill the beans on her. "Is it a formal party? I don't have anything formal." "Just wear like a black dress or something or wear what you are wearing right now, it looks good on you Nami, but it would look better on my bedroom floor."

Namine rolled her eyes at Zack's suggestive remark but then sighed in defeat. "Alright, I'll go but only if you promise you won't tell Sora or Roxas or Axel who I was with today!"

"Deal!"

"Alright! Okay, since I'm pretty sure your big brothers will say no the party, we are sneaking you out this time. We'll just say that Reno and I want to take you to the park or something, just make up an excuse and use your big blue eyes to win them over."

"Just like you use your eyes to get the ladies that always reject you?"

"Exactly…heeeey!"

The three occupants in the table laughed while Zack just crossed his arms and scowled. "Well, Nami you better get back to Prince Charming over there before he calls the police to report you missing. We will call you with more details later!"

Namine nodded and with a wave at them, quickly went back to Riku.

"What took you so long?"

"Oh…umm there was a line in the bathroom." Namine said since that was the first excuse that popped into her mind. Riku nodded and took a sip of his root beer float. "So how's your food?" he asked the blonde and she said, "It's really good! But I'm full now."

"Same here, but the float is amazing." Namine giggled and then Rikku came back with the check. "Here's your check guys. I gave you a discount so be thankful! Just don't tell that to my boss."

Riku and Namine thanked her as she walked away again to go help another customer. Namine grabbed her purse and was going to grab the check but Riku beat her to it. "No worries, let me pay for it, I was the one who invited you out so it's only fair if I pay for it."

"But Riku!"

"Don't worry about it. If we do this again, you can pay for it? How about it?"

Namine's eyes widened because Riku just said that he wanted to go out with her again. _But just as friends_ she thought sadly and then she got up from the table when she saw that Riku had gotten up as well.

"We have to pay at the front and after that I'll take you home. Sound like a plan?"

Namine nodded and without both knowing how, they both reached for each other's hands and held hands while exiting the section of the restaurant they ate at, paying for the food, going to the car (they let go when they entered the car) but then they held hands during the drive to Namine's house.

Riku reluncatnly let go of her had since he had to get out but when he opened the door for Namine he grabbed her hand again which made Namine happy. "Thanks for inviting me out to eat today, Riku. I really needed it and I'm glad you got your license."

"Thanks for accompanying me, it was fun and I know we have to do this again sometime."

None weren't sure how to properly say goodbye until Namine decided to do something a little bold. She has been hanging out with Kairi way too much.

She stood on her tip toes and gave Riku a kiss on the cheeks. "Night Riku, I'll see you in school." With that said, the blonde let go of Riku's hands and went inside the apartment complex.

Riku was to stunned to move or do anything, he only touched the place where Namine's lips ahd just been.

Did she like him too?

Grinning like a man who was just told he won the lottery, Riku walked towards his car and drove towards his home. This night had turned out just right.

_It was perfect._

* * *

Namine had just unlocked the door when she saw Roxas and Axel watching College Blitzball on TV. When they heard the door close though they turned and grinned at Namine.

"Hey Nami, how was dinner with Kairi?"

"It was fun actually! I had a blast."

The blonde and redhead sighed with relief and then Roxas said "That's great to hear. I suggest you go to sleep since tomorrow you are going to school now that you can barely see your bruise anymore."

Namine nodded and went to hug both boys before going to her room. She took off her white dress and shoes and changed into some baggy pajamas and then she laid down on the bed. She couldn't stop smiling about her evening out with Riku. Although, it did turn a bit sour when Zack blackmailed her, it didn't ruin the evening at all. She hoped Riku wouldn't be mad at her after the stunt she just pulled but she knew somewhere he wouldn't be.

Snuggling into her blanket, Namine drifted off to sleep with thoughts of a silver haired boy and hopefully a party that she wouldn't regreat agreeing to go to.

* * *

"Dad, do I have to?"

"Don't dad me, and yes you must. You are at the age that your brother was when he first started attending my parties and be thankful that I at least let you invite your nuisance of a friend."

Riku groaned as he lay down on his bed. He had just gotten back from possibly one of the best nights ever only to have it crash around him when his Dad told him that he has to go to his extravagant party on Saturday. Riku had never been to one before but he knew that it mostly consisted of snotty people talking about how much money they had and how much better they were than the rest of society.

He was grateful that he was bringing Seifer along since he knew he wouldn't be able to survive by himself at one of these parties. "You should be happy that you are going, Riku. You get to see how extravangant Dad's parties are."

Riku who was still lying down on the bed turned to see his older brother, Sephiroth walk in. "You meet great people there and I'm sure you will get along with them just fine. I don't mean to interrupt, but I need to speak with Father."

"Go ahead Seph, take him."

Xemnas nodded at his youngest son and left the room to follow his eldest son leaving Riku to groan yet again at his predicament. He knew there was no way to get out of going to this party and he was praying that Seifer wouldn't ditch him at the last minute.

Maybe Namine would like to come?

As if. The guests there would eat Namine's sweet demeanor alive. He just had to pray that something would happen that would make the party stop from happening. Fat chance of that happening.

Oh well.

Riku stared at his ceiling and was slowly but surely falling asleep. Tonight had been perfect for him and he couldn't wait to see Namine again. Things were starting to look up for Riku and he knew they were definetly looking up for Namine as well.

Hopefully the party wouldn't be too bad and bring him down.

* * *

A/N: Anywhoo, I haven't played any Final Fantasy characters so I'm hoping I'm nailing the characters correctly and if I'm not please correct me. I've done my research of the characters through Final Fantasy wiki and Wikipedia pretty much. Plus, just a couple of nights ago, I downloaded the movie Final Fantasy: Advent Children and it sort of helped me pin point on how the characters act. Plus, it was an awesome movie : ). If you would like to put some input on how the characters act, feel free to do so, thank you! So far, FF: VII is my favorite haha.

A/N 2:So I hoped you enjoyed that chapter! The party thing should be up in the next chapter and lots of good and bad stuff will happen to our blonde artist and her friends. Anywhoo, thank you for taking time to read this you guys have no idea how much this means to me. I hope you guys stick with me till the end but don't worry, I don't see the ending in plain sight just yet haha.

Review!

Thank You! :D


	10. Sunset Hill

**New Beginnings**

AU: Namine has recently moved in with her brother Roxas and his best friend Axel. Her other brother Sora also lives close by her. They along with Axel are very protective of her but what happens when she befriends and gets close to a silver haired boy?

A/N: Hey everybody! Thank you for the wonderful reviews! I'M SO SORRY it has taken me a while to upload this I've just been really busy with starting college soon and family stuff. Plus I moved out of my parent's place to a place of my own with two friends so we've been having a blast and I've been stressing out over midterms and what not and dealing with some issues. I promise that next time you won't have to wait this long for the next update! This is more of a filler chapter but I hope you enjoy nonetheless! I appreciate it! Once again I'm so sorry for the late update! I also didn't have time to double check for any spelling or grammar mistakes so I'm sorry if there are a bunch! Enjoy this chapter! :D

* * *

**Chapter 10: Sunset Hill**

The next few days in school nobody would see Riku without Namine and vise versa. The two had become much more closer than they were before and even Seifer had to admit that there was a certain spring in their steps whenever the two were together. Some were saying that the two were already a couple while others were betting on how long they would last if they were already a couple.

Seifer, Rai, Tidus, and Wakka would tease Riku about Namine when she was talking with someone else and tell him to be a man and ask Namine to be his girlfriend while Namine was dodging the questions Tifa, Aerith, and Rikku had for her while on her date with Riku. Rikku had told them about her date and all the girls believed that the two juniors looked cute together. Speaking of these three, Namine was currently trying to evade their questions and comments about Riku by doing the assignment that was supposed to be turned in at the end of the art class period.

"Come on Nami! Although I was your waitress I could clearly tell that there's some great chemistry there! I think you should just ask him out since he's too chicken to do it." Rikku said and Tifa nodded enthusiastically. "He might be planning something though! I'm pretty sure Riku will be the one asking her out and not the other way around." Aerith reasoned while the two other girls made a face. Unlike Tifa and Rikku, Aerith, who was raised with older traditional values, was old fashioned when it came to dating and believed that it was the guy's job to ask the girl out and pay for her meal, which was why she approved of Riku when Namine had told them that he had paid for their meal.

"Aerith, that is so old school! We are a new generation of crazy kids were I believe that girls should ask guys out! Whatever a guy can do, a girl can do better!" Rikku said and she stuck her tongue out at the two older boys in their art table who were just listening to their conversation instead of doing the given assignment like a typical high school student.

"I'm sorry Rikku, but like Aerith said, I think the guy should do the asking and paying." Leon said and earned a smile and hug from his girlfriend. "I knew I picked the right guy!" That made everyone in the table laugh. "What about you Cloud?" The blonde boy looked at his friends and shrugged.

"I agree with both of you, personally I think it would be nice if the girl did the asking once in a while but I'm happy to pay for everything for her." "See, Aerith! Not all blondes are dumb!" Tifa said and she earned a glare from two certain blondes (one was only focusing on her drawing) but then they all laughed.

"So Namine, I heard you were blackmailed into going to a party by Cloud's brother to keep Cloud company at some party tomorrow." Namine blinked and slowly looked up at Tifa. Cloud had told the guys about the blackmail incident and Namine then made them promise that they wouldn't tell anyone else about it, which they had agreed too. She wasn't sure how Tifa felt about her going with Cloud to this party though and she was worried that she would think that she was trying to steal Cloud away from her. "Your not mad at me are you?" It was Tifa's turn to blink and then she burst out laughing. "Why would I be mad at you? I know you're not the type of person to steal other's boyfriends. Besides, isn't a certain silver haired prince charming your cup of tea instead?"

Namine blushed and continued with her drawing so she wouldn't give Tifa the pleasure of knowing that she was right. "I heard the parties are pretty boring though, so hopefully without them noticing we can sneak out, but knowing my brother he will make sure we are at that party no matter what."

"That's okay, maybe we will find something to do." Namine said and Cloud nodded. "Just eat all the food there and then sneak some back to your house. Yuna, Tifa and I did that at Wakka's party once." Rikku exclaimed while Tifa laughed. "I remember that!" Although Yuna did go to a different school, Rikku, Tifa and Aerith were great friends with her and the boys were good friends with Wakka and Tidus since they were also in blitzball.

Aerith was about to reply but the bell cut her off and everybody was scrambling to get out of class and go to their next one. Namine closed her sketchbook and put it inside her backpack and afterwards walked with the group of seniors. Cloud and Leon both had gym that period while Aerith, Tifa, and Rikku had English, which was in the same direction as Namine's math class.

Once the girls had parted ways, Namine went inside her classroom and smiled when she saw the familiar head of silver hair sitting at his desk talking to Rai and Seifer. Namine decided to surprise him since she saw that Riku had yet to notice her coming inside the class. She slowly walked towards their desks and then once she had reached her target she put her hands in front of Riku's eyes and felt Riku's face contort into confusion.

"Guess who?"

That confusion was replaced with a grin, as Riku knew exactly who was blocking his sight. He however decided to play along for the time being. "Hm, well your hands are pretty girly, so I think its Seifer?"

"I do not have girly hands!"

Namine giggled and Riku took that opportunity to grab Namine's hands as he stood up to give her a hug. Once they both got out of the embrace, they failed to notice that they were still holding hands. Seifer smirked at the two and couldn't believe how stupid his best friend is because he had yet to ask Namine to be his girlfriend.

What a chickenwuss.

"So how are you guys going to sit down when you are holding each other's hand?"

The blonde and silver haired teens looked towards their intertwined hands and let go as though someone had just electrocuted them. Seifer laughed at them while both teens took a seat. Riku glared at his best friend while Namine was trying to control the blush that was covering her face.

A few minutes later Fuu, and Vivi walked in and sat with them and after the teacher had given a lecture and an assignment, the teens decided to talk since the assignment was really easy and they had all finished it in 10 minutes. "So what are you guys doing over the weekend?" Namine asked her group of friends.

"My dad is taking me fishing somewhere, ya know? He wants some 'father- son time' or whatever, ya know?"

"Fuu and I are going to the library to work on our Advanced English class project. Its due Monday so this weekend will be pretty busy!"

"Agreed."

"What about you guys?"

"I have to go do stuff for my dad." Riku lied although he hated doing that. He still didn't want Namine to know that he was rich because he wasn't sure how she would take it. He knew she would never use him for his riches but would their friendship change if he told her that? He wasn't about to take that chance.

At least for now anyway.

Seifer, who knew the reason why Riku was lying (although he personally thought it was stupid of him to hide that fact) said, "That sucks dude. I have to do stuff with my old man as well, I bet our dad's plotted this together."

Riku gave Seifer a silent thanks as he nodded. "Probably, I mean I'm pretty sure both of our dads hate us or something. What about you Nami?"

Namine was about to tell them about the party but she quickly closed her mouth. She couldn't tell them about Zack's blackmail because for all she knew, Riku believed that Roxas had let her go out with him to eat and she didn't want to hurt his feelings if he found out the truth.

"Um, I'm not sure yet really. I think I'll just draw or something." Namine said but she did notice that Riku nor Seifer didn't believe her while the rest of the gang did. Namine knew she was a horrible liar and she was hoping that they wouldn't push the issue anymore.

As Seifer was about to question her, the teacher announced a surprise pop quiz, which made all the class groan. Namine silently cheered for her luck that they wouldn't ask her about it but sighed when she saw that the pop quiz wasn't as easy as the class work they had just done. She grabbed her calculator and was solving most of the problems but some were really hard.

She saw a few people already panicking while others asked their neighbor for the answers when the teacher wasn't looking. Some had already finished and were just playing calculator games, one of those people being Seifer. Sighing, Namine decided to just try her best and hopefully pass this quiz with an average score.

Hopefully she wouldn't fail the pop quiz and she silently hoped that Riku or Seifer wouldn't question her about her weekend anymore.

* * *

"Yeah, Larxene said she will give you a ride to the party since I'm already booked with rides. Demyx is riding in the trunk so the only place available is the roof; unless you want too ride there? Ha-ha okay, see you there then. Love you, bye."

Roxas hung up his cell phone and smiled as he put it back in his pockets. He couldn't wait until tomorrow for Xemnas's party because this time he knew that all his friends would be there and his girlfriend who he was just talking too and there was never a dull moment with them.

He couldn't wait.

"So, what are we going to tell Namine?"

Roxas looked up at his friend and his eyes widened. In all the excitement about finding ways to bring Kairi, Sora, and Olette to Xemnas's party, they had both completely forgotten about inviting or even mentioning the party to the younger blonde. Even though Roxas didn't want Namine to go, he felt bad for completely forgetting about his younger sister.

"Uuuhh.."

Axel looked at his friend who for the first time in a long time was left speechless. He, himself had completely forgotten about inviting the younger blonde as well and he had just remembered after Demyx asked him if Namine was going to be home alone since she wouldn't be able to go the party. Axel had thought of one solution but he wasn't sure how his best friend would take it.

"We could just lie."

Roxas whipped his head around and stared at Axel as though he had just announced that he was carrying Marluxia's child. "Are you nuts? I can't lie to Namine! I'll feel like an ass." "So, you always lie to Sora?" "Well, Sora isn't as innocent as Namine!"

"That is true, but we both know we don't want her to feel left out and for now, although I feel like a jerk saying this but lying seems like the way to go."

Roxas sighed but nodded anyway. He didn't want her to go to the party but he didn't want his sister to feel left out of group events such as this. For now, his redhead best friend had a point. Lying, even though he hated it was the only way for Namine to not find out what they were doing tomorrow night.

"You think she will believe us?"

"Well, we could just buy her stuff to ease our guilt and make her happy? Like a puppy!"

Roxas glared at Axel and said, "You're the one who wants a puppy, Namine hasn't said anything about a dog." "Oh come on Roxie! How can you deprive an innocent girl like Nami, the privilege of having a dog! That's so insensitive!"

Roxas rolled his eyes at his best friend and then said, "Well, we could just say that we have to work overtime or something. Like some rich guy wants his car fixed as soon as possible and Xemnas wanted us to fix it for him. Would that work?"

Axel nodded and said, "I guess that will work for now. I think Reno is probably going to be suspicious about it but won't say anything since his friend Rude is a powerful guy and is also going to Xemnas's party. Hopefully he won't say anything."

Roxas had forgotten about Reno but he believed that Reno wouldn't say much if he told Namine this while he was in the room and would question his lying later. Axel, who was watching his friend still think about the decision they had come up with it said, "Hey, let's talk about this later, right now we have to figure out what color to paint that truck that came in a few weeks ago. Since the owner didn't specify a color, we should paint it bright green."

Roxas winced at his best friend's choice of color but he was glad that Axel was changing the subject. He didn't want to worry about this until later when he was with his friends. They had all agreed to meet up after each other's work and school was over and hang out like old times. He didn't want to worry about this right now and just relax for the time being. Painting that car bright green sounded like the perfect way to relax.

"Alright Axel, whatever you say."

* * *

School had just finished and Namine was glad for it. She did a decent job on her quiz and right now she was looking forward to exploring what Twilight Town offered rather than going straight home. Since Roxas, Axel, and Sora were going to hang out today with their significant others, Namine decided that she would walk around to explore. She wanted to see for herself and explore her new home, Twilight Town. At first the boys protested but in the end they reluctantly agreed but Namine had to call them once she got home and she had to bring her pepper spray that Axel had given her when she turned fifteen.

Riku and Seifer had stayed behind to talk with Cid about when the new season of blitzball was going to start. They would usually announce things like that in the school's intercom but since both of them don't pay attention to what the intercom usually says, they decided to just ask the coach instead since Seifer thought he heard them announcing the dates.

Namine walked to her locker to grab the books she would need for the weekend to do her homework. Once she closed her locker she saw another blonde leaning against the locker next to her.

"Hey Cloud."

Cloud smirked and said; "You know how hard it is to get you alone? I've been waiting all day to talk to you but your either with _Nomura or Almasy_ or surrounded by Tifa, Aerith, and Rikku. Your quite popular now."

Namine laughed and Cloud grinned at her. "Anyway, the reason I wanted to get you alone was to go over the details for tomorrow." Namine nodded and gave her full attention to Cloud. "So, what Zack told me was that Reno is going to somehow convince your brother that he's going to take you out to dinner and a movie with me and Zack. We think that going to your house at around 9pm is a good time so it doesn't look suspicious when you come home late in the night since the party will end at around midnight or so. Once we get to your apartment, we will all go in Reno's car and they will take us to the party. Once the party is over, we will all meet up in front of Reno's car and drive you home."

"Sounds like a plan! Even though I know Roxas and Axel will be a bit nervous about me coming home late, at least they somewhat trust Reno since he and Axel are brothers and all."

Cloud nodded as they both started walking towards the exit of the school. "So who's picking you up today?" "Nobody, my brothers and Axel are hanging out with their girlfriends, so I'm walking home today."

"I could give you a ride if you'd like?"

"Actually, I kind of wanted to go exploring today seeing that I've never really gone through most of Twilight Town. I only know the mall and places to eat but I want to know what else there is."

"Well, actually there's not much excitement around here except the shopping district and the sunset residential district. In the shopping district there's a house in the woods that apparently is haunted, I'm not sure if I should believe that or not. In the sunset residential district there's a hill where you can get a great view of the town and the sunset and it's a convenient place for some peace and quiet."

Namine's curiosity perked up at the mention of the hill. "How far away is that from here?" Cloud shrugged and answered, "It depends on what time the train usually goes at, but it's not fun going alone. Plus, taking the train after sunset is pretty dangerous. Twilight Town may look like your average safe neighborhood in the morning, but at night it completely changes."

Namine's smile turned into a frown upon hearing what Cloud said about the nighttime dangers that lurk in town. She really wanted to go see this hill because she would be able to draw the sunset and the town and hopefully turn that in for extra credit in her art class.

What Cloud said next though made her forget the reason why she wanted to go there in the first place.

"I think I'll give you a ride there and I'll accompany you."

Namine's eyes widened and she replied, "You don't have too! I mean, don't you have something to do today? It's a Friday afternoon!" Cloud shook his head and said, "Well, Leon and Aerith are out doing couple stuff and Rikku and Tifa went to hang out with Yuna. I was going to go straight home and bug Zack but he's hanging out with Reno and Rude today. I think I'll just show you the ropes of Twilight Town. I'll just be your tour guide for today."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive, don't worry about it I mean we're friends right?"

Namine looked at Cloud and saw that his eyes held honesty in them and that he wasn't going to hurt her. She was beginning to see Cloud as another older brother and she had a feeling that Cloud was starting to see her as a little sister.

Cloud gave Namine a genuine smile and said, "Okay then. We have to go to the parking lot and get my motorcycle so we can go to Sunset Hill. It will take about a half an hour to get there. Have you ever ridden a motorcycle?"

"You have a motorcycle!"

"Yeah I got it for my sixteenth birthday, it used to belong to Zack. Zack bought a newer one and he knew how much I loved his motorcycle so he gave it to me."

"You and Zack are really close huh?"

Cloud nodded and said, "Yeah, we are. I mean there are times when I just want to strangle him for getting me into tough situations or for annoying me with his puppy dog stare but he's my brother and he's pretty cool."

"I guess that's how all siblings are like. Although they may bug you, they are always there for you. I know that Sora and Roxas are always there for me no matter what."

"I think it's an unwritten rule somewhere that older siblings have to torture their younger siblings no matter what."

Namine laughed at what Cloud just said and she was surprised to see this side of Cloud. The two kept walking and then they both stopped in front of a large black motorcycle, which made Namine uneasy. She had never ridden a motorcycle before but Larxene had told her that motorcycles were much more exciting than a regular car ride. Before Larxene was dating Axel, she was dating another man who had a motorcycle and that was the only reason why she was dating him. However, she got bored of it and of him so she dumped him. She was glad that Larxene had changed for Axel though and wasn't using him for anything.

Cloud grabbed a black helmet and tossed it to Namine who barely caught it. "Aren't you going to wear one?" "Nah, I think I'm a pretty safe driver." Cloud was saying as he put on a pair of black goggles. "Besides, if you're like Tifa, you probably don't want to ruin your hair."

Cloud grabbed his backpack and motioned for Namine to give him her backpack so he could put it in one of his motorcycle's many compartments. Once they were stored safely inside, Namine got a little bit nervous when she saw Cloud hop on the motorcycle and was waiting for her. She had never been in one before and she wasn't sure if they were safe or not. Cloud seemed to sense this and said, "Don't worry about it, it's safe trust me. I bet you'll like it."

Namine nodded and she put on the black helmet and hopped on behind Cloud. She grabbed his waist and all she heard was "Hold on tight!" Before he sped out of the student parking lot and into Twilight Town to explore.

* * *

Seifer and Riku had just gotten out of talking to Cid about blitzball. They had found out that the announcement that Seifer believed was about blitzball was in fact about today's lunch special and not the sport that they loved dearly. Cid did tell them that the season would start soon and he would notify them immediately when he had all the details. Seifer and Riku were walking towards the parking lot since Seifer was going to spend the night at Riku's house to get ready for the party tomorrow. As he was walking with Riku he saw two very familiar figures walking and chatting with one another and he didn't like one of them.

"Riku, look!"

Riku looked at the direction that Seifer was pointing too and to his dismay he saw Cloud and Namine talking. He scowled as he saw Namine laugh at something Cloud had just said.

"What's he doing with Nami?"

"Who knows?"

Since they were both going in the same direction as Cloud and Namine they followed them to the student parking lot and saw them stop in front of a motorcycle.

It was Fenrir.

That was Cloud's most priced possession and he made sure that nobody ever touched it or rode it. The only people they had seen who had the privilege to ride Fenrir were Tifa and Leon since he was closest to them.

Now it seems he was really close to Namine.

They saw Namine hesitate a little bit before Cloud said something and she nodded. She put on her helmet and got in behind Cloud, then Cloud started the engine and they both sped off into the distance leaving a stunned Riku and Seifer behind.

"Well, that was weird."

Seifer was staring at his best friend and noticed the way his fists clenched and jaw tighten at the disappearing motorcycle. He knew his best friend was jealous and angry at the moment and although Seifer was a bit mad as well, he wasn't as mad as Riku.

Seifer knew there had to be a logical explanation for all of this and he didn't want Riku to do anything stupid like chase after Cloud and Namine. He knew that Namine was crushing on Riku and not Cloud so that put his mind to ease but he knew that Riku was over thinking the whole situation. So, instead he decided to treat his best friend to something that he knew would definitely calm him down.

Sea Salt Ice Cream.

"Riku, I'm pretty sure they have to work on an art project or something. Green is not your color."

"I'm not jealous!"

"Keep telling yourself that and maybe you will believe it."

Riku gave his best friend a glare that would normally scare a lot of people away, but not him. He had put up with this glare for a long time, even before they were friends and he knew that was his 'let me brood in peace' glare rather than the 'I hate your guts' one but those two glares were always mistaken for one another.

"Look, I know what you're thinking right now and as much as it would be fun to spy on the two I don't think it's the right thing to do. We can just ask Namine later tonight or she will tell us, I know she won't lie or anything and Cloud has a girlfriend. So just calm down."

Seifer saw his friend relax and he let out a sigh that he had been holding in. He knew his friend was contemplating his words carefully so he was grateful that he had actually listened to him rather than ignore his advice.

"Okay Seifer. However, this doesn't stop the fact that we still hate Strife and Leonhart. I think we should have a little chat with them Monday at school, if you catch my drift?"

Seifer grinned and said, "Of course it doesn't change that fact! Man, you really want to beat up Strife huh? That jealousy is really deep man. Well, that's okay, I have my own personal vendetta against Squally boy." Riku nodded since he knew the reason why Seifer would always go after Leon rather than Cloud. That reason was on Seifer's face along with Squall's face. However, he didn't feel like thinking about it too much as his thoughts still lingered over how much he wanted to beat Cloud up right now.

He was also trying to tell himself that he didn't want to beat up Cloud just because he felt jealous.

"Now, I don't know about you, but I'm in the mood to get some sea salt ice cream!" That, along with his stomach growling made Riku calm down and forget about his jealousy and to smirk at his best friend and said, "Okay then. But you're paying!"

A groan was heard after this followed by laughter from both boys.

* * *

Sora, Kairi, Roxas, Larxene, Olette and Axel were all currently debating the issue about lying to Namine about Xemna's party.

The six adults were all in Sora's SUV driving around since they had gotten out of work early. Sora was a bit mad though because Axel had decided to take the wheel even though it was his car. So far they had all agreed to the plan to tell Namine that Roxas and Axel were working overtime on Saturday so Namine wouldn't worry about them if they came home late. They just weren't sure if they would be able to lie to Namine's face like that.

Axel had stopped in front of a red light and was getting rather annoyed by it because it wouldn't turn green. He really wanted too run the red light but he already had way too many overdue tickets that he has yet to pay. He was excused from paying half of them because his father intervened and helped him get out of paying for them.

It felt good to have a father who was a lawyer.

"I understand why you guys have to lie but, I'm pretty sure Namine will understand. Why don't you just tell her the truth?"

Kairi, along with Olette thought that it would be best to tell Namine the truth but the boys didn't want to hurt the younger blonde's feelings. Larxene on the other hand didn't really care what the boys were going to do because she knew that in the end, Namine would probably end up finding out about.. "I just don't know how she will take it Kairi. She might feel left out about it and I don't want her to feel like she doesn't belong."

Just as Kairi was about to reply back they heard the loud engine of a very large motorcycle next to them that had just stopped at the same red light next to them. Axel whistled at the sleek and shiny motorcycle that looked oddly familiar.

"Hey Roxas, isn't that Fenrir? That motorcycle we patched up for that one blonde kid?" Roxas looked over and saw that indeed it was him and he was going to wave at him but then he saw that he was with a girl who had long blonde hair. He saw him turn around and say something to his blonde hair companion and all she did was laugh.

Roxas took a closer look at the girl and saw the girl he was with was wearing the same uniform that Namine wears to school. She looked oddly familiar and noticed that the others were staring intently at the pair. Then they saw the blonde girl turn to look at something, probably a street name and Roxas's eyes widened.

Wait a minute…blonde hair, blue eyes, and wearing a familiar school uniform?

No way.

"Is that…"

The people in the SUV gasped in shock when they realized that the passenger on the motorcycle was Namine and the driver was a spiky blonde haired individual who looked older than Namine.

Roxas was rolling down Axel's window and about to yell at the pair but unfortunately for him, the light decided at that moment to turn green and the motorcycle started and left them behind. The two best friends stared at each other with mouths wide opened and without even saying anything; Axel followed the motorcycle to see what their young blonde was up too. Everyone else was wearing a shocked expression except for Larxene who looked quite amused.

"Well, I did tell her that motorcycles are better."

* * *

Larxene was right about motorcycles.

The blonde loved the adrenaline rush she was getting from it and the cool air whipping past her face. It felt a bit free to have that air around her and feel some of her hair flying (although the helmet did keep most of her hair from flying).

After driving around for a bit they had finally reached their destination and Cloud found a perfect parking spot to park his motorcycle in. Once Cloud had turned off the engine, Namine hopped off and gave the helmet back to Cloud who put it away in one of his motorcycle's compartments. "So what did you think of your first motorcycle ride?"

Namine grinned and said, "I thought it was going to be scary but I really liked it!" Cloud laughed and replied, "I think everybody secretly loves motorcycles but are too scared to use one."

Idle chitchat filled the air as the two teens made their way to the top of the hill. The sun was starting to set so many people around them where either sitting on benches or chatting about the day's events and parents were watching their little children playing with their toys or classmates.

Once they had reached the top of the hill though, Namine looked and strangely enough, there was no one around. It was surprisingly empty at the top of the hill they were in and although it was a bit eerie, it had a calm and serene aura about it.

"Welcome to Sunset Hill. This is the best place to see the sunset and one of the places where maybe you can see one of the seven wonders."

Namine tilted her head to the side. "The seven wonders?" "Yeah, it's a legend around here. The seven wonders of Twilight Town are all around this area. It adds to the mystery that is Twilight Town I suppose. Zack and I were supposed to go and look at all of them but that's when he moved away. He still wants to go find the wonders though."

"What do you see here then?"

"Well, after every sunset at this exact spot you'll see a ghost train with no one on it that leads to nowhere. Many say it leads to a magician's castle but only those who truly believe in him can get on. It looks different than a normal train; this one is purple and has stars on it and has a magical feel to it. Well, that's what Tidus and Wakka told us. They swear that they saw it one time but I don't really believe them because those two tend to be a bit crazy at times."

"Well, maybe we will see it?"

"Maybe."

Namine followed Cloud towards the center of the hill until they had reached a wooden railing where Namine could clearly see everything. It was a breathtaking view of the sunset along with the town and she also saw a train track that went through the hill. She knew she had to come back here one day and sketch the sunset, hoping to capture its beauty in her drawings. The view of the town from the hill was majestic and Namine was secretly hoping to see one of the seven wonders.

Rather than sit in the many benches around the hill, Cloud and Namine both sat on the railing that surrounded the hill while looking at the sunset. Namine never realized how beautiful the scenery was of Twilight Town until today and she secretly told herself that she would go exploring more often. The pair stared at the dying sun for a little bit before Cloud interrupted the silence with something Namine was not prepared for.

"So you and Riku huh?"

""Wh-what?"

"I can tell you like him and vice versa."

"I like him as a friend-" Namine started but was interrupted when Cloud snorted. "I know you like him more than that." Namine looked down and was once again trying to control that blush that was trying to make its presence known.

"It's not obvious for a lot of people but I can tell you really like him a lot and he really cares about you. I may not like him but if he's somehow still the same Riku from two years ago, then I guess he's a good person for you."

"Two years ago? What do you mean?"

Cloud turned away from Namine to stare at the glowing sky that was turning dark. "Riku and I were friends once upon a time. That's all your getting from me." Namine looked at the other blonde and her curiosity sparked even more.

Cloud and Riku were friends?

She was about to ask more about this but Cloud gave her a look that immediately made her shut her mouth. She really wanted to know what happened that made them hate each other so much.

After a few minutes of silence, the sun had gone down and you could see some stars were coming out for the night. Namine looked at Cloud and was happy that she could trust him. She remembered when she first met him he seemed cold but once you reach past that exterior, Namine could tell that Cloud was a sweet and great guy and was glad that he and Tifa were together. While Cloud was ice, Tifa was fire and both of them balanced each other evenly.

Namine got down from the railing when she noticed that Cloud was starting to do that as well. The moon was rising and the stars were starting to shine even brighter in the night sky. She knew it was about time to leave since she was pretty sure Roxas, Sora, and Axel would be worried but before leaving though she wanted to take one last look at the night sky.

A few moments later, Cloud nodded his head to the side, signaling that it was time to leave before it did get too late and besides, they had a huge day tomorrow. As both were leaving Namine decided that Cloud deserved a thank you for hanging out with her today so the older blonde was shocked when he felt the younger one wrap her arms around him in a hug.

"Thanks Cloud."

Cloud who wasn't used to hugs (except from Zack, Tifa, Yuna, Aerith, and Rikku of course) slowly but surely put his arms around Namine and hugged her back. Suddenly they both heard the sound of a train's engine going by and the two looked down and to their disbelief saw a mysterious train go by.

It was a purple transparent train that was going through Sunset Hill, one of the seven wonders that Cloud was talking about. The train was a rich purple color and its windows were in the shape of stars. Both blondes had their mouths wide opened at seeing this train and could not believe their eyes.

However, as quick as the train came it vanished underneath the tunnel and when both ran to the other side to see it come out, nothing came out. Almost identical blue eyes stared at one another and mouths were wide open.

"Did you just-"

"See that?"

Then without warning, they both burst out laughing from actually seeing one of the seven wonders. They knew what they saw was real and they were very happy to have finally seen one, especially Cloud who shouted at the night sky while walking back to the motorcycle.

"Wait until I tell Zack!"

* * *

"Damn, we lost them!"

The group of friends were all on the hunt to find a particular blonde on a motorcycle but after a while they had lost Fenrir. Axel had parked the SUV and the girls and guys split up to look for them around Sunset Terrace. When everybody met up a little bit later empty handed, the twin brothers and Axel were the only ones who were slightly panicking over what might have happened to Namine. They were going over worse case scenarios that would rarely ever happen in Twilight Town and only in the big action movies that they loved to see. Olette, being the voice of reason had tried to make the boys calm down but when that wasn't working, Kairi decided to step up to the plate. She went up to the boys and smacked all three in their arm, which made them wince in pain.

"Okay, first of all you guys are acting as though it's the end of the world, which is not. Pull yourselves together! Second of all, Namine hasn't been kidnapped, sold to the black market, or taken by aliens." She glanced at Axel when she said the last one. "You guys need to pull yourselves together before I have to snap you guys out of it. _Do I make myself clear?"_

The boys gulped and nodded, as they knew from personal experience to never make Kairi angry. Although she was tiny (but not as petite as Namine), she could easily beat them up. When she was a freshman in High School, she made a senior, who was one of the best blitzball players in Destiny Islands cry because he had been picking on Sora.

Nobody picked on Sora or messed with Kairi after that incident.

Kairi was just as curious as the boys were on who the mysterious man Namine was with. From what Axel and Roxas told her, his name was Cloud and he was in high school; that was all they knew about him. What bothered her more though was the fact that maybe this guy was coming after Namine. She had already planned on how to get Riku and Namine together and all of a sudden some random spiky haired blonde pops into the picture?

Namine was clearly wrong when she said she wasn't pretty if boys were chasing after her.

"Now, I don't know about you guys, but I think we should just go back to Roxas's place and wait for Nami there."

Everyone nodded and piled into Sora's car (who luckily was able to drive it after he snatched the keys back from Axel) and drove back to his brother's apartment where they would wait for Namine to come home.

Then they would attack.

* * *

Namine pulled her backpack up her shoulder and waved at Cloud as he drove back to his house. She had a great time hanging out with Cloud and was glad that she had a friend like him.

Now came the part she was dreading.

She knew she was home really late, well late for Roxas and Axel and she was scared of how they would react. Taking a deep breath she slowly made her way to their apartment complex.

Once she reached the door she pulled out her keys from her backpack and unlocked it, letting herself in. What was strange though was the fact that the lights were all turned off and it was eerily quiet.

Nobody seemed to be home.

Maybe she got lucky!

"Nami!"

Or not.

The lights turned on and Namine shrieked as she let go of her backpack and keys and saw her brothers, Axel, and their girlfriends all sitting around the living room. Namine sighed with relief at seeing them but noticed that there was some slight tension in the atmosphere.

"What's going on?"

Immediately Namine was bombarded with questions that the poor blonde didn't comprehend. Everyone was questioning her left and right and she could barely keep up. Namine was trying to tell them to slow down but nobody seemed to listen to her. Larxene, who had not gotten up from her position on the couch finally went over to them and hushed them all with a wave of her hand. She turned to the other blonde and asked her the question that had been burning on everyone's mind all day.

"Enough about that! Who was that cute blonde you were with on that motorcyle and what did you guys do?"

Everyone saw Namine's eyes widened with understanding for a second until her eyes narrowed. "Were you guys spying on me?"

Namine had turned the tables.

"We weren't spying Nami. We were all in Sora's car when we saw you in the back of that guys motorcycle. We just want to know who he is." Olette said in hopes of calming down the blonde by telling her the truth.

"Is he your boyfriend?"

"Larxene!"

Namine glared at her and then said, "First of all, he's not my boyfriend, he's my friend and his name is Cloud. Second of all, he just showed me around town and gave me a ride on his motorcycle. He's Zack's younger brother. We are friends, that's it!"

Four faces visiby relaxed at Namine's confession while two looked simply amused. Olette and Larxene thought it was funny how Kairi was panicking that another guy was after Namine but now that she knew the truth, they were laughing at their friend's relief.

Now this is where Namine expected a scolding from Roxas and was waiting for it but to her disbelief Roxas didn't do anything. Instead he just got up and said, "Well, at least your safe."

And just like the tension in the air was released and everyone was agreeing to order a pizza and watch a movie. Namine was noticing that everybody was acting differently for some reason but she decided to just shrug it off.

She wasn't about to question her good luck of not having Roxas scold her.

She watched with amusent as Axel was trying to order a pizza but kept messing up on the toppings since nobody could agree on what to get. She felt bad for the pizza delivery guy and was going to make sure that they gave him a big tip.

She then sat in between her brothers and she relaxed on the comfy couch and let the others choose a movie for them to watch. Although at times she did feel like the odd one out, she savored these moments when all of them could just hang out and simply relax.

She needed the relaxation if she was going to survive that party tomorrow. Namine looked around one more time before grabbing a pillow from Roxas and throwing it at Sora. Sora stuck his tongue out at Namine and threw the pillow back at her, only to hit their older brother instead.

Roxas playfully smirked at them and both of his younger siblings just smiled at him. He then smiled at back and all three of them relaxed, watched movies, ate pizza, and played games throughout the night.

It was a perfect ending to a great day.

* * *

A/N: Well, that's all of chapter 10! I hope you enjoyed it! I wanted Cloud and Namine to be close but friends close not that they are going to love each other! Plus I wanted to add a little more about Riku's past friendship with Cloud and a bit about Leon and Seifer was mentioned as well. Now, next chapter will be the grand bash and lots of things will happen! So far, I have a few pages written of the next chapter so it won't take me two months to update it. Once again I am so sorry for the late update but don't worry, I won't take forever to update anymore!

Please Review!

:D


End file.
